From: PENQUAKR74@aol.com
Date: Tue Jun 04 2002 - 01:20:23 EEST
Patents are what made the economy what it was. The fact that a Patent system
was part of the original language of the constitution gave rise to the rapid
industrialization of the United States by allowing the expansion of cottage
industries into larger businesses with many employees instead of a trusted
few that craftsmen used to have in order to protect their trade secrets. The
use of patents to protect one's investment is legal and it's been the reason
that there is an RP industry today. Without it, 3D would not have been able
to grow and certainly other investments in the RP industry would not have
happened without assurances that they would get a decent return on their
investment. If a company has a monopoly on a machine and the services for
that machine because it had the innovative foresight to patent its
development, then so be it. The market will respond with choosing an
alternative product or seeking relief through defensive patenting. The
question really is how long will it take for the market to respond? Through
stories on this forum, you are affecting future buying decisions of customers
who may find the circumstances a little much to have to deal with an
unresponsive dealer or manufacturer after the product has been sold. But
please make sure that the stories have some basis in fact or are not rumors
started by rivals. Trade disparagement is a serious issue and unfounded
rumors can be damaging to the writer.
Scott Taper
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Tue Jan 21 2003 - 20:13:50 EET