Posted: 8/1/2018
Introduction
I have written several posts regarding intellectual property rights (see bottom of post) and why they really are not a good idea. Intellectual property rights e.g. should be entirely abolished or considerably shortened!
How Many Roughly Simultaneous Inventors?
Today, I came across this article The Game of Telephone That Became a Battle History books may credit him as the sole inventor of the modern device, but Alexander Graham Bell was only part of the story that mentions Elisha Gray and an Italian named Antonio Meucci.
Since I was born and grew up in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, we celebrate yet another inventor of the telephone, our Philipp Reis. According to this Wikipedia article about Reis, there were perhaps even others planning to or inventing the telephone.
There is no need to go into the details of each of these telephone inventors for the purpose of this blog post.
Something Was In The Air
What is clear is that around 1850-80 it was imminent that something like a telephone would be invented. So it happened that perhaps as many as half a dozen inventors in three or four different countries developed a telephone within this period of time.
Only because one of them (i.e. Graham Bell) was very clever, if not worse, faster to the patent office, and a better businessman than perhaps the other co inventors, one man and his company were awarded with the patent …
Conclusion
The invention of the telephone is probably one of the best examples why intellectual property rights are actually harmful to humanity. More competition would certainly be better for technical and human progress!
My Previous, Related Blog Posts
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