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Working Around Patents with Evolutionary Design

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the survival-of-the-most-original dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Using computational trial-and-error allowed a Stanford team to come up with a patent-free WiFi antenna. Patent rules are tricky to formulate as self-interest dictates that the claim is as general as possible. Patent fences effectively can build a substantive competitive barrier to markets. Using evolutionary tactics may be a way to legally and ethically bypass these roadblocks."

4 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Re:and then.... by kailoran · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Better yet, what if someone patents all "evolutionary-designed $DEVICE" (antennas, cables, whatever), making any further attempts to evolve a different version a violation?

  2. So what's to prevent patent trolls doing the same? by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Its time to "fix" this problem by removing software and business methods from the purview of the patent office.

  3. "Evolutionary tactics..." nonsense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Hardly "evolutionary", designing a system that designs trial and error is hardly "evolutonary", its basically an intelligent search of a search space compared against a pattern. Evolution is blind, it has no end goal.

  4. Re:That's great! by riegel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am not a big fan of the patent system. but...

    This example shows the patent system working to the end it was designed (encourageing innovation). If Cisco had not had a patent on design A design B may have never surfaced.

    Am I wrong?

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