While a lot of patents are nonsense and software patents in general,
it still amazes me how fast things are now adapted in the case of the
iphone. We would still have phones with thousand of buttons and switches
if apple would not have shown an other way. The sliding idea to unlock
the device was new and the engineer who has invented it should
has his or her invention protected for a while.
Innovation should be rewarded for a couple of years but then freed up.
It is the time frame which is a problem.
Intellectual property and patent protection should last only
a couple of years, but enforced strongly. This gives the artist
or inventor a living for a few years. 10 years maximum.
After that, the technology or art should go in the public domain.
The inventor or artist will be forced to become creative again.
I do not know how fast the code for the iphone could have been adapted and copied
so fast by others. The only obvious mechanism which comes to mind is that today
when we give email and other communication services more and more to
external companies, this information is also mined. An apple engineer
using an external free email service for example might give away a
lot of code just by communicating with others about the projects.
In the case of the iphone, the adaption went too fast. When introduced in 2007,
the iphone had a lot of innovative features. The interface,including
the way how to interact with the device would be unlocked, was new. 2010, three
years after, almost identical competitors were already outselling them. Of
course this is good for us customers, but the question is, whether in the
future, there will be an other boost of innovation from companies.
I mean innovation, not just copying or refining what has been done before.
If the risk that your innovation is copied in 3 years and outselling yours,
there is no point any more for such exploits. For apple it still worked, but who will dare such a thing again?
Again: protect intellectual property, new ideas and new art vigorously, go
after copy-cats, freeloaders and rip-offs, but then free the technology or art after a decade.