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 Originally Posted by boost
Battery based transport has been set back by decades because of battery patent hording by Big Oil and Big Auto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_...NiMH_batteries
I mean, I disagree with most of what Ong is saying, but, wufwugy, your buffering of your posts with free market cheer leading isn't a good look.
I don't doubt that some oil and/or car companies have tried to set back progress, as that always happens. It's like even with a perfect poker game, you still lose hands. In a perfect economy, some people still try to fuck shit up. But the effect of those is still marginal
Patent encumbrance is a problem, not just in this industry, but in many. It isn't responsible for killing innovation though. Overall, the link is conjecture by a handful of people. Chevron isn't squelching battery tech. If they had a viable, scalable tech, they'd use it. All these companies are already trying to do so, and if there was a battery tech out there that could provide yet was blocked by patent, we'd absolutely hear about it almost every day. The amount of lawsuits against Chevron or whoever would be astronomical, and engineers in the field would be crying bloody murder. But they're not
A documentary or two doesn't make the case. Even if the patents were stifling innovation (which many do), they only stifle for a relatively brief period of time. Patents are a balancing issue, and through the cracks some fall for a period of time. But in the long run, they don't stifle
Man if Elon Musk came out and said "yeah without these certain kinds of batteries protected by patent, we can't make solar powered cars to scale", there would be hell to pay. Fucking hell to pay. The populace still makes the rules, and an integral reason to why we do is free markets
We currently live in a world of skyrocketing tech and living standards. I find it specious to blame the holes in the system for making the system itself shit
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