If I come up with a much better way of doing something that is relatively easy to reimplement, there's no great incentive to come up with those ideas then.

I'm not suggesting that the current patent system works well, but you are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

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Kuyawa 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

The incentive is in delivering first. When the free market saturates and profits are razor thin due to extreme competition, first movers always get the rewards of innovation

	▲	hex4def6 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Counter: Netscape vs Internet Explorer. Netscape had a year lead, but it's hard to compete when Microsoft decided to bundle IE for 'free'. If profit margins are razor thin, the Apples and Amazons and Microsofts of the world can happily copy an idea and hold their breath far longer than a smaller competitor can.
	▲	transcriptase 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		For as long as it takes for a bigger fish to implement, which I’m sure would be hastened without any need to consider legality of doing so.

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carom 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The incentives are very poor in art, yet artists still create. I don't need people making video games for the incentives, I want the artists.