Ah, yes. A bad thing. I did not see that one coming, dammit!
>
>A poor person cannot bring his own invention to market, because he
>doesn't have the money -- and he also can't pay up if his invention
>doesn't work out.
>
If the inventor is paid a good sum for the invention, he could return the
money. If there was fraud involved, are we going to let criminals off just
because they are poor? The poor criminal can work off his debts..
>Besides, oftentimes even a basic description of an invention is
>sufficient to reinvent it. For example, try to describe a
>Frisbee(tm) well enough to garner interest, but *not* well enough
>that a toy manufacturer could reinvent it himself just from your
>description.
And that says it all. Without some sort of protection, inventors just won't
bother, unless they are true altruists..
Chuck Kuecker