The Patent Pledge

August 2011 I realized recently that we may be able to solve part of the patent problem without waiting for the government.

2011年8月 我最近意识到，我们也许可以解决部分专利问题，而无需等待政府。

I've never been 100% sure whether patents help or hinder technological progress.

我从来都不能百分百确定专利是否有助于或阻碍技术进步。

When I was a kid I thought they helped.

当我还是个孩子的时候，我认为他们有帮助。

I thought they protected inventors from having their ideas stolen by big companies.

我认为它们保护发明家免遭大公司窃取他们的想法。

Maybe that was truer in the past, when more things were physical.

也许在过去更是如此，当时更多的东西都是物质的。

But regardless of whether patents are in general a good thing, there

但无论专利总体上是否是一件好事，

do seem to be bad ways of using them.

使用它们似乎确实是不好的方法。

And since bad uses of patents seem to be increasing, there is an increasing call for patent reform.

由于专利的不当使用似乎在增加，因此对专利改革的呼声越来越高。

The problem with patent reform is that it has to go through the government.

专利改革的问题在于它必须经过政府。

That tends to be slow.

这往往很慢。

But recently I realized we can also attack the problem downstream.

但最近我意识到我们也可以解决下游的问题。

As well as pinching off the stream of patents at the point where they're issued, we may in some cases be able to pinch it off at the point where they're used.

除了在专利发布时截断专利流之外，在某些情况下，我们还可以在专利使用时截断专利流。

One way of using patents that clearly does not encourage innovation is when established companies with bad products use patents to suppress small competitors with good products.

使用专利的一种显然不鼓励创新的方式是，产品不好的老牌公司使用专利来压制产品好的小竞争对手。

This is the type of abuse we may be able to decrease without having to go through the government.

我们可以减少这种类型的虐待，而无需通过政府。

The way to do it is to get the companies that are above pulling this sort of trick to pledge publicly not to.

做到这一点的方法是让那些不采取这种伎俩的公司公开承诺不会这样做。

Then the ones that

然后是那些

won't make such a pledge will be very conspicuous.

不做出这样的承诺会很引人注目。

Potential employees won't want to work for them.

潜在的员工不会愿意为他们工作。

And investors, too, will be able to see that they're the sort of company that competes by litigation rather than by making good products.

投资者也将能够看到，他们是那种通过诉讼而不是通过生产优质产品来竞争的公司。

Here's the pledge: No first use of software patents against companies with less than 25 people.

承诺如下：不首先针对人数少于 25 人的公司使用软件专利。

I've deliberately traded precision for brevity.

我故意用精确性换取简洁性。

The patent pledge is not legally binding.

专利质押不具有法律约束力。

It's like Google's "Don't be evil." They

这就像谷歌的“不作恶”。他们

don't define what evil is, but by publicly saying that, they're saying they're willing to be held to a standard that, say, Altria is not.

不定义什么是邪恶，但通过公开这么说，他们表示他们愿意遵守奥驰亚所不遵循的标准。

And though constraining, "Don't be evil" has been good for Google.

虽然“不作恶”有限制，但对谷歌来说却是件好事。

Technology companies win by attracting the most productive people, and the most productive people are attracted to employers who hold themselves to a higher standard than the law requires.

科技公司通过吸引最具生产力的人才而获胜，而最具生产力的人才会被那些要求自己高于法律要求的标准的雇主所吸引。

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