In the desert there is only a single place to drill for water, but there is enough water if you drill there to serve everyone.
The king, in an attempt to find this well, issues a proclamation, that whoever finds this place to drill will own all of the water that comes out of it for the rest of their lives.
Most of the desert dwellers recognize that searching for this well wont keep them fed in the meantime, so an enterprising young duke offers a different deal. He says that he will pay people to search for the well, in exchange for the rights to the water if they find it.
Many desert dwellers take him up on this deal, its a good job, and it pays well enough to subsidize the searching.
When the well is finally found, the king grudgingly hands the duke the rights to the water, and with the wealth that the exorbitant prices he charges for water brings him, the duke eventually owns the whole desert and deposes the king.
That's it, thats the whole story. If you thought it was stupid, and that the king should have done things differently, we are in agreement.
I think the king should have made the duke point out who actually found the water, and then the king should have stuck to his proclamation and awarded all of the rights to that person.
> To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
It doesn't say a transferable right. and "securing" and "exclusive" seem to argue against transferability. Beats me why the courts and congress decided otherwise.
The king, in an attempt to find this well, issues a proclamation, that whoever finds this place to drill will own all of the water that comes out of it for the rest of their lives.
Most of the desert dwellers recognize that searching for this well wont keep them fed in the meantime, so an enterprising young duke offers a different deal. He says that he will pay people to search for the well, in exchange for the rights to the water if they find it.
Many desert dwellers take him up on this deal, its a good job, and it pays well enough to subsidize the searching.
When the well is finally found, the king grudgingly hands the duke the rights to the water, and with the wealth that the exorbitant prices he charges for water brings him, the duke eventually owns the whole desert and deposes the king.
That's it, thats the whole story. If you thought it was stupid, and that the king should have done things differently, we are in agreement.