Quote from: kalodu on May 11, 2017, 05:13:21 AM

~~IP is a necessary evil, without it there will be little new research and development if everyone can freely steal your research and ideas. A lot of development costs a lot of money.~~

I do however believe it is in need of reform, particularly in certain fields where it does the opposite of fostering development it restricts it. For example patents that are held for the sole reason of preventing development or companies that buy patents simply to sue others for using something similar.

I agree with this also!
I have first hand experience of this but on a very small scale.

about 10 years ago I came up with a little photography tool after creation and testing
I discovered someone else had patented something similar, not the same but had
factored in all manners of similar items which rendered my creation redundant while
this patent existed.

It was just a patent that was never brought to production but hampered the development
of my idea.

So in the big business world I can see how this could be a major source of frustration.

However I do agree with the concept of IP but as has been mentioned it needs updating.