The premise of the patent system is that people wouldn't naturally document a secret process and so providing an external incentive to do so is a net benefit. This is a superficial presumption at best...
Since research must be peer-reviewed to be debunked or even understood, there is a limit to the benefits of trade-secrets and NDAs as a hedge against competition. You might be able to get a short-term advantage, but it's unsustainable because the knowledge cannot transfer. An employer ties his/her own hands by internalizing process knowledge (ironically, not what was intended): the increasingly small number of people with the specialized knowledge having increasing leverage; the profits are destroyed when your only choice is to pay a small number of in-house experts whatever they want, because noone else can do the job. This doesn't happen overnight mind you, but it would after at most a single generation (the point at which you have to train your successors or close shop).
IMHO, the case for patents is hollow.
> "On the other hand, most people are not familiar with what is in the literature."
This is the larger friction. We will continue to grasp at straws until people have thorough and integrative education and access to existing techniques without exorbitant costs or fear of prosecution. Even major (though more frequently minor) improvements over existing techniques are only temporary wins; research that never becomes widely disseminated and understood ultimately becomes a sunk cost.
To refer to your original 3-points:
1) I totally agree, "computer technology is over-run with frivolous, vague, stupid, conflicting, and contradictory patents."
2) I do not discount the level of investment required to push the boundaries of process knowledge, but I would say that it is part of normal competition and those costs are part fo being in the game. A trade-secret is only valuable for a few years, after which it can and should be disclosed to maintain a low cost of employment (unless you want your employees becoming your partners). My point is that patents don't provide any significant benefit toward this end and it has always been the case that if a company or person doesn't have to reveal it's process, it won't. (And the employment of patent lawyers and trolls is not itself a valuable end.)
3) "Academia is already facing difficulties..." Again, I would say this is a temporary situation at worst. We should not extrapolate from the first few points on this curve. We know more about the context: companies that don't publish (internalize all their knowledge) will eventually have no ground to stand on since no one will be able to contribute without an understanding of their internal processes. At most a company can keep only as much knowledge as they can afford to convey, at their expense, to a new hire. They would have to turn their back on a lot of our publicly standardized and centralized educational framework. Unless something were to fundamentally change, I don't see any way those costs can be justified.
Since research must be peer-reviewed to be debunked or even understood, there is a limit to the benefits of trade-secrets and NDAs as a hedge against competition. You might be able to get a short-term advantage, but it's unsustainable because the knowledge cannot transfer. An employer ties his/her own hands by internalizing process knowledge (ironically, not what was intended): the increasingly small number of people with the specialized knowledge having increasing leverage; the profits are destroyed when your only choice is to pay a small number of in-house experts whatever they want, because noone else can do the job. This doesn't happen overnight mind you, but it would after at most a single generation (the point at which you have to train your successors or close shop).
IMHO, the case for patents is hollow.
> "On the other hand, most people are not familiar with what is in the literature."
This is the larger friction. We will continue to grasp at straws until people have thorough and integrative education and access to existing techniques without exorbitant costs or fear of prosecution. Even major (though more frequently minor) improvements over existing techniques are only temporary wins; research that never becomes widely disseminated and understood ultimately becomes a sunk cost.
To refer to your original 3-points:
1) I totally agree, "computer technology is over-run with frivolous, vague, stupid, conflicting, and contradictory patents."
2) I do not discount the level of investment required to push the boundaries of process knowledge, but I would say that it is part of normal competition and those costs are part fo being in the game. A trade-secret is only valuable for a few years, after which it can and should be disclosed to maintain a low cost of employment (unless you want your employees becoming your partners). My point is that patents don't provide any significant benefit toward this end and it has always been the case that if a company or person doesn't have to reveal it's process, it won't. (And the employment of patent lawyers and trolls is not itself a valuable end.)
3) "Academia is already facing difficulties..." Again, I would say this is a temporary situation at worst. We should not extrapolate from the first few points on this curve. We know more about the context: companies that don't publish (internalize all their knowledge) will eventually have no ground to stand on since no one will be able to contribute without an understanding of their internal processes. At most a company can keep only as much knowledge as they can afford to convey, at their expense, to a new hire. They would have to turn their back on a lot of our publicly standardized and centralized educational framework. Unless something were to fundamentally change, I don't see any way those costs can be justified.