Quote:
Originally Posted by 4throck
...It doesn't seem to me to be within the spirit of competition to patent these things. Teams shouldn't be in this to make a profit, nor should they be able to...I'm pretty sure our team could have gotten a patent or two in years past, but it isn't in the spirit of the game to be so secretive.
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You might have the wrong idea of what a patent is and what it does. It certainly doesn't keep anything secret. Note that by applying for a patent, one makes the information
public.
A patent merely gives its owner [temporary] ownership of a product or process. Nothing makes that owner prevent others from using it. All it does is forbid others from profiting from it
without the owner's permission.