Yeah, I think we agree that it depends on where you draw the line between “idea” and “execution”. It just seems odd to me to draw the line in the place that most people draw it, and which you refer to in your reply, as the idea only being about the product. If you think about an idea as a simulation, it’d be silly to only simulate the product part and to not simulate anything about customer acquisition.
Yes I see what you mean re drawing the line in different places. Similarly an idea for a product can be distinguished from the execution, i.e. creation, of the product.
A few times I’ve been approached by people who claim to have ‘invented’ some software, perhaps with a patent for it, but on closer question they’ve merely had an idea for some software and want someone else to write it. (Again assuming that the idea is the hard part.)
This illustrates that a patent is a simulation (or indeed a plan) of a product. If it were to be created, it would do XYZ. (US patents are meant to include sufficient detail to enable people with relevant skills to implement it—i.e. a complete plan—though European patents needn’t.)
Yeah, I think we agree that it depends on where you draw the line between “idea” and “execution”. It just seems odd to me to draw the line in the place that most people draw it, and which you refer to in your reply, as the idea only being about the product. If you think about an idea as a simulation, it’d be silly to only simulate the product part and to not simulate anything about customer acquisition.
Yes I see what you mean re drawing the line in different places. Similarly an idea for a product can be distinguished from the execution, i.e. creation, of the product.
A few times I’ve been approached by people who claim to have ‘invented’ some software, perhaps with a patent for it, but on closer question they’ve merely had an idea for some software and want someone else to write it. (Again assuming that the idea is the hard part.)
This illustrates that a patent is a simulation (or indeed a plan) of a product. If it were to be created, it would do XYZ. (US patents are meant to include sufficient detail to enable people with relevant skills to implement it—i.e. a complete plan—though European patents needn’t.)