Ben Franklin on patents
I’ve been enjoying reading Ben Franklin’s autobiography (free on my Kindle). Most of it feels like it was written today. As we all argue about software patents, it’s useful to read Franklin’s views on stove patents:
Gov’r. Thomas was so pleas’d with the construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declin’d it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.
