Abolish patents or What the Huffington Post Suggests

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-k-levine/save-the-whales-abolish-p_b_434595.html

This article focuses on the problems intellectual property patents can cause. These problems are something the average person needs to know more about, especially with invention shows around like Shark Tank. Now often times I, like probably everyone else, look at the pros that come from protecting inventive or unique ideas through copyright or trademarks or patents; the problem is getting a hold of the rights before someone else. What I mean by that is basically that a lot of things can't even be physically created or developed due to someone having secured the rights through some means for example like publishing a paper or blue print. The author of the article, David K. Levine, while using a ridiculous title for his blog entry, makes some valid points. One of the better examples clearly shows a con of patents, which is that patents owned by a opposing company or person can and often do scare off investors.

While I don't agree completely with the author on all points, especially the complete abolishing of patents, I do think we can do somethings about patents. One thing is embracing the public domain, what I mean by this is letting rights and patents into the public domain after a certain amount of time, that includes characters like Mickey Mouse, Spider-Man & Superman and Archie & Scooby-DOO. Note this public domain idea, probably won't happen. A more realistic thing that can be done is creating a time limit on patents where if a person or company doesn't do something to exploit or physically create an item with in the time limit then they lose the patent.