"The concept of a laser-based mosquito defence system took off back in 2007, when astrophysicist Lowell Wood (one of the architects of the USA's famous Reagan-era "Star Wars" missile defence initiative) raised the idea of a smaller, mosquito-targeting laser system at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation brainstorming session on eliminating malaria.
Over the following years, prototypes were built, using freely available parts from cell phones and laser printers. A device was patented and demonstrated by a company called Intellectual Ventures, which was more interested in owning the patent than making a product. "
> which was more interested in owning the patent than making a product.
I really hope that after copyright protections (insanely long, IMO) get revamped in the LLM aftermath, we start focusing on patent law. Patents were always in my mind a way to protect small_inventor from big_bad_corp, and give them a breathing room to get a product to market. We should really focus on this, and make patents moot as long as a) a working prototype is not demonstrated, b) the patent holder doesn't pursue the tech, c) a small domain-specific timeframe (less for medicine for example) and d) it's really really generic (i.e. a method to have LLM agents work in a loop - no, bobby, everyone can do that.)
"The concept of a laser-based mosquito defence system took off back in 2007, when astrophysicist Lowell Wood (one of the architects of the USA's famous Reagan-era "Star Wars" missile defence initiative) raised the idea of a smaller, mosquito-targeting laser system at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation brainstorming session on eliminating malaria.
Over the following years, prototypes were built, using freely available parts from cell phones and laser printers. A device was patented and demonstrated by a company called Intellectual Ventures, which was more interested in owning the patent than making a product. "