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Comment by lostcolony | Hacker News Reader

Ah, yes. The non-obvious ability for a volume control to control more than one speaker at a time.

Our patent system is so broken.

And it used to be so good. Not being ironic. For example, coca-cola patented their formula. It didn't prevent other companies from making their own "colas", like Pepsi. They just couldn't make it using the exact coca-cola formula. Which is fair, I'd say. You have to create your own way to achieve that result.

The equivalent in software should be "you can replicate the idea, but not the code behind it". But somehow that became "you can't replicate the idea at all", which is super broken.

coca cola never patented their formula, it's still a secret

same with WD40/KFC/...

And Coca-Cola has an ingredient benefit - the fact they have a license to put coca into the drinks is completely unique in the industry AFAIK. It might be troublesome for a competitor to get that same license.

Coca-Cola buys the extract from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Company which, IIRC, is the only one with a license to import the leaves.

Thank you for the details. I guess in that case Pepsi could buy them from the same place, although I suspect there is an exclusivity agreement there!

Technically, Coca-Cola puts in a coca leaf extract that is produced by Stepan Company. They are the ones who have the only license to import coca leaves in the US and they use them to make medical cocaine. The extract they sell to Coca-Cola comes after all the good stuff is gone. Coca-Cola never touches the leaves.

Thank you for the details. I guess in that case Pepsi could buy them from the same place, although I suspect there is an exclusivity agreement there!

That's exactly how it should be. Intellectual "Property" is only property so long as it's kept secret. Once the secret is out it's just information.

IMHO Patents are unethical. Patents for IP are an atrocity and Software Patents are a crime against humanity.

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