I reckon simple solutions are often simple because they ignore important complexities. I'd love to abolish patents, but I don't see how our society could before figuring out stuff like how else to support the people that do important knowledge work, and incentivizing creating new things when it's a hell of a lot more profitable to just wait until someone else does it first. The software industry is already compatible enough that many companies open source their code voluntarily, but I don't see how we can generalize that. What incentive would companies have to pour all of those resources into complex chip design, intricate novel medical devices, or new medicine? You might be able to have open source insulin pump controllers, but how about a lifesaving new linear accelerator or chemotherapy drug when your competitor could just pay your lead engineer half of your 9 figure R&D budget to completely replicate the process and hit the market at nearly the same time? I'd love if this work could be done by universities or publicly funded because it so obviously benefits the greater good, but it's not, and that seems like a prerequisite you simply can't ignore.
I'd love to be proven wrong, but I think the "well if you wanna make an omelet..." kind of attitude I usually see accompany sentiments like this seem more edge-lordy than anything else.
Have you actually read any patents? Just knowing the bare basics of how something works isn't enough to make a successful business out of it. Even with mechanical manufactured stuff, a few diagrams isn't going to tell you all the stuff you really need to know to properly manufacture it, and patents have famously left out lots of important trade secrets, not to mention stuff that people just didn't bother writing down.
>into complex chip design
Do you have any idea all the technology and tools that go into chip design? They aren't all nicely documented in some patent applications.
>when your competitor could just pay your lead engineer half of your 9 figure R&D budget to completely replicate the process
Good luck with that. No single engineer knows enough to replicate any truly complex process.
>I'd love if this work could be done by universities or publicly funded because it so obviously benefits the greater good
If you could pay a single engineer to do anything so substantial as you claim, then all this work would be done by universities. It isn't, for a reason.
The incentive that companies have to pour resources into this stuff is to make money, and they do this by building their technology base and market share. Not having patents isn't going to make much difference; it'll just prevent them from keeping new competitors out of the market so easily.
I'd love to be proven wrong, but I think the "well if you wanna make an omelet..." kind of attitude I usually see accompany sentiments like this seem more edge-lordy than anything else.