Strategical Move of Releasing Patent to be Publicly Free | Reticulate Evolution of Global Technology

In the modern economy where capitalism prevails, growth will only favor those who have avant-garde values. Those values include the aspect of short and long-term merit, ease of use, practical use, novelty, efficiency, range, etc. which shall determine the worth of an individual or entities. In the purpose, those values should have the ability to escalate people's quality of life.



Those values are "Intellectual Property (IP)" which includes patent, trademark, design, geo-indication, and copyright. However, the patent is what I consider the true driving force of advancement, whether the rest are some complementary elements to pursue financial means.

How is this so?

Because a patent is an exclusive right that derives from an invention. No matter how profit-oriented something was invented, the impact will mostly urge the existing technology to move forward.



Take cryptocurrency as an example, its credibility is nowhere near legitimate, but the decentralized system it fetched propels the world financial technology quite a distance. Many startups begin to adopt it and make Initial Coin Offering (ICO) rather than Initial Public Offering (IPO), although Crypto seems to be in the "Bear" effect currently.



Not to mention the great invention of industry, electricity, media, etc. Since these inventions, technology grows exponentially.

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Then again, what I mean by releasing patent is, to give it away to the public as a free innovation, so, no one need to contact or pay anybody to use it. There is nothing usual about it as most inventor or company would do anything to profit from patents and sue anyone that seemingly try to infringe.



To put it bluntly, it is a risky move that causes more disadvantage, because it is wasteful. You simply spend times and resources to invent something and poof, you release it so anyone can make use of it. You simply throw away your worth after the trouble you've gone through to invent it, and other people come for it without any resources spent at all. In a capitalist world, it is considered as a backward and self-destructing move. Although, patents can also expire if not re-licensed.



In capitalism, if you're not the one who controls the patent, any industry you're building is at risk of disbandment or become an object of cash-cow to the extent of however the patent holder likes.

How is that related to free patents?

The fact that any entity can further invent the previous patent means that it can outperform your recently released patent. If the outperforming patent yield excellent product or technology, your worth may be reduced to nothing.



Have a look at the case of "IBM PC compatible or IBM clones". IBM made a PC design with an open architecture that let clone manufacturer use free non-proprietary part. In the end, IBM PC lost its influence and then acquired by Lenovo.



But in history, there's an example where releasing patent could actually pay off greater than what lost.



Here's a story about a release of patents surroundings intermodal shipping container. There was no metal shipping box in the US, let alone standardized stacking size for ship conveyance. Goods were packed in barrels, crates, and sacks. These limitations further accompanied by high labor force required to load and unload the freight. A load-unload process could take a week and created serious delays on port and train schedules.

Later, Malcolm McLean designed the pioneering stackable shipping container and also the ship that could carry it. His SeaLand company that worked on this was a total success resulting in astonishing 30 tons/hour load-unload speed.



When the Vietnam war broke out, US government put the urge of standardization for more efficient shipment to South Vietnam. McLean agreed to release its patent, making the standard in ISO 338, 790, and 1897. This release prompted rival companies worldwide to adopt it knowing its efficiency and advantages the shipping container has, triggering a wide trend-shift, despite the resistance from the longshoreman association that load/unload the cargo by hand for a living.



But, even if opponents begin to grow, the trends of intermodal carriage still favor him knowing he has the leading technology and progress, generating more than $1 billion profit at the end of 1974.




Long story short, there's an evidence of tactical advantages in releasing influential patent to the free public domain.



First, it could inflate its influence and popularity as the industry is known not to waste any resources available, especially a useful free patent. Who doesn't know Android, it's a more popular term to describe the successful Operating System (OS) of smartphone nowadays rather than the synonym of a robot. And of course, Android is a released free patent, owned by Google.



Yet, Android also offers another storyline of other benefits for releasing patent. It was released right when Symbian OS was dominating smartphone. Later, Symbian influence began plummeting along with Nokia as its majority shareholder. The release of Android just became a winning offense to the previously dominating trends of smartphone technology.



Nevertheless, rather than looking them as sole business maneuver, there are many positive impacts of releasing patent for the development of global technology. With the release of Android, successful startups have been growing much such as Oppo, Mito, Evercoss, OnePlus, etc. Those brands are able to thrive because of the free patent of Android that let them minimize production cost and put money on what matters. The technology of smartphone is no longer the monopoly of the developed country, at least.

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Reticulate Evolution

Reticulate evolution is an upper explanation of Darwin evolution, where the history of life cannot properly be represented as a classical branching tree. The evolution will eventually differentiate, but surprisingly also merge at some point. The purpose remains the same, for survival and fitness of the species. The most recent case is the colliding of two raven species that become one again.



This somehow described how advancement can be achieved not only by an exclusive development of genetic structure differentiation and became another branch of species, but also inclusive scheme where the recently separated species merged to accommodate each flaw and strength.

Reticulate Evolution of Global Technology

This can be interpreted in many perspectives but because we're discussing patent, so let's talk about how it contributes to the Global Technology Evolution.



Present technology won't develop without the backing of financial profit, thus they mostly flourished in a capitalist world. Capitalism itself emanates the atmosphere of a wild environment with the saying "Survival of the Fittest". It requires an immense evolution of company product through the invention of patents. The more practical and favorable the patent is, the stronger the holder is.



That is the conservative way of how to develop technology in capitalism.



However, the creation of patent actually contributes as a restraint for the progress of technology. It is used as a selling point of some product so the market share can be gathered exclusively for oneself for the sake of competition.



The saying of "Patent" itself rings excellently with the attribute of "Exclusivity". The truly useful technology for mankind today are those inventions assembled in the public domain.



The occasion of releasing patents is a good thing that causes the acceleration of global technology development. Some countries in the world improved their living standard because of those free patents, as products cultivated from closed patents should cost more or even unattainable.

Take Indonesia as an example, they already have their own local smartphone brand with cheaper price because of Android openness can reduce the cost of production. The after effect, Indonesian people can taste the joy of modern technology and catch up with the more developed nations.



Now, learning from Reticulate Evolution theory, progress and worth can also be achieved by inclusiveness, not just exclusiveness. With releasing patents to the public domain, the world technology will evolve in exponential accelerated speed rather than delayed by closed patent for the sake of capital dominance.