“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”
This is a quote by Howard Aiken, and American scientist (1900-1973) who was very much involved in the computer and electronics field at its outset.
And, by experience, it is held to be true by all the players in front-edge products and companies.
It just means that if your idea is really original, people will just not believe in it. Not only that, but they will try to kill it and discourage you.
So don’t worry about the competition – at least if you pursue this visionary idea persistently. Your following will come. And when you will be successful, you will redefine the market.
An other meaning is that an idea is nothing without its execution. What’s really difficult is to put it in practice, implement, tweak, mature it – and to do it against the rest of the world. That’s where the value lies. Anybody can have fantastic ideas. Not so many will be able to implement them. It takes focus, time, patience and persistence.
The defining criteria of patents should not be any more that some kind of prototype has been produced, but whether it has been adopted by a large following. Nobody cares about an invention if it is not used, and it is not appropriate to have the inventor become rich because somebody else managed to use the idea to produce social value.
Let’s change intellectual property. Let’s make it social. Ultimately, that’s where value lies.
