Do Pantent Laws help or Inhibit innovation

[ShamelessHosts]

Hello,

Just a simple question, do US Patent Laws help or Inhibit Innovation. I am not talking about an exact RIP but products with similar features. A few examples that come to mind

Apple iPhone vs Samsung Galaxy
Apple iPad vs Android Tablet
Windows Mobile vs. Android Phones
Oracle (sun) vs Google

Of course I am not talking about intentional knock offs or direct copies, I just feel that the only winners in Patent Lawsuits are the Lawyers
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[Kedzi]

Of course they inhibit innovation, but companies have money as priority, they will always try to have the monopoly of a certain field. Money is the base of technology, so people with money decide.

I am sure that technology could be far more advanced if money wasn't the priority. It's like for electric car, they have been invented since a couple years and some of them were really great, but they are only starting to go on the market now because oil companies wanted to make more and more money by delaying its apparition.

I know it's not really related to the question but it's still part of the innovation subject :P

 

[Loonycgb2]

I didn't read it fully but the companies you named have publicly shown they copy each others work apple being the top to copy and steal ideas

 

[Mindy]

^ thats not really the question. Do patents help or inhibit - and I say help - however they are too long.

 

[CuraHack]

Patent laws are being abused atm, if you ask me, as you mentioned in the main post, there are way to many un-needed lawsuits going on.
For example, the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is banned in Germany is totally insane, apparently Apple managed to convince the supreme court that all flat tablets are knock-offs of Apple. Same goes for the lawsuits on the Samsung Galaxy S2. If you ask me, they don't look alike at all!

The same patent abuse is going on in other markets too for example take a look at the medicinal sector too, if patents ware ignored lots of cures against different types of cancer would be available, but multi-billion-dollar corporations are abusing the law. (link)