People usually do not think much about the patents in the military. However, look at countries like China and Russia you can see thousands of products and factories based off of patent infringement. However, patents in the military are usually kept by other nations to an extent. Even countries like Russia and China have not directly copied military patents. These countries try to build similar weapons, but not exactly alike. They can use reverse engineering, but that can also be too expensive for some countries. However, what really holds the difference in these advanced weapons is the trade secrets that the military engineers hold. So countries such as Iran, China, and Russia may try to create fighter jets and military ships but the weapons will not be as strong or compatible as the weapons they copy. So, they usually resort to copying many similar features and cannot copy exactly the same thing.
In the future, hopefully there will be some international rules and enforcers of patents. So they can constitute the grounds for international patent infringements Plus, the real worry of patent infringements comes from the increasing amount of cyber attacks on "intelligent offices," like the White House and Pentagon. Where the hackers can steal blueprints of billion dollar military engineer projects and then create the exact same thing somewhere else.
http://thediplomat.com/flashpoints-blog/2013/02/06/intellectual-property-meets-military-tech/
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Wow, that's concerning that billion dollar projects can be stolen and recreated.
ReplyDeletei agree that having international rules and enforces of patents will be really beneficial for the whole system. It simplifies the process and protects the owner much better. The world is also getting more accessible and I feel that it is a matter of time that we will need such development in international standards and laws.
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