Originally Posted by
Magicdave
I've been thinking about this, and I've had a bit of a reversal of thought.
The bush craft industry, which should be an oxymoron, exists. And it needs to exist, it's a lost world full of lost knowledge that has actually been stolen from us by industrial thought, but we let that happen through our desire to have what we need supplied to us. Todays world is sadly a financial one, and we all need to finance ourselves to live in it. So what is the issue with the patent? It does restrict the marketing side of things, to whatever extent the patent holder is willing to protect/allow.
But. If I, or any other, sees the product (not necessarily this one) and it is obvious how to make it then the patent holder can't claim against it, or, won't claim against it. First they have to know about it, then they can only claim against lost potential earnings. Which that would be zero, or at the most the cost of one unit. The legal costs would be substantial to collect that zero profit.
There will always be that business competition side of things where patents are studied and design changes are utilised. Or, in the case of a true new invention, fees are paid to allow the use of the invention within another idea for the purpose.
But bushcraft is bushcraft. Nothing can be patented.
Anything that can be marketed can be reproduced, either in the same or in a different (better, or worse) way than what is being marketed.
I suppose this might actually relate to how I was thinking earlier.
Onwards and upwards.