Patents

Patents are ideas that a person has paid the government to make fine or imprison anybody who makes or uses the patented idea without paying them to make or use it. Patents act like ideas are physical property that can be stolen from you, but ideas can’t be stolen from a person. They can be copied, or another person can have the idea, but if you tell someone your idea they aren’t stealing it, they’re not taking it from your brain and putting it into their brain, instead, you have the idea and they have the idea. But patents act like ideas can be stolen. For example: if you came up with an awesome invention and built it, then another person comes along and takes the invention, that would be stealing. But if they just look at your invention, go home and make the same invention, then the patent says that is stealing and that the government should throw you in jail for copying the idea. Patents are also bad for the economy because there will only be one producer who can charge a ton of money for the invention and you have to pay the ton of money since you can’t get it anywhere else. If you could get it somewhere else and they charge less money for it, everyone would buy from them, causing the first people to lower their prices, and so on. Patents in the US last for 20 years unless they are ended by the patent-filer. So patents make rich people who can spend more money on the legal cases to steal the patent richer, and poor inventors who can’t poorer.