It's a double edged sword. It may suck if you want to implement it yourself but it benefits society by creating a constraint. That constraint will force people to work around it to possibly create new and better implementations of the refresh behavior.
Also, I wasn't aware that the patent expires in 20 years. That does seem like a long time but compared to the perpetual copyright we have it's not as bad. I'll agree that the term patents are given is too long but I'm one of the few around here that is in favor of them. Not absolutely but to a reasonable degree. The patent system has flaws (major ones) but the idea of patents is something I support. I truly believe that it really does foster innovation. It's an incentive to innovate.
If Twitter let's others use it and collects royalties then it's not like Twitter alone is able to implement it and when the patent expires others can for free. Facebook on iOS has had this behavior for a while now.
I think people much like yourself are thinking of patents in absolute terms like they're all good or all bad. It's more complicated than that. They're a good thing that can be abused like prescription medication or guns. If we could just be sane about what gets to be patented, how long, and just generally use patents sanely we'd have no problem. So let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Also, I wasn't aware that the patent expires in 20 years. That does seem like a long time but compared to the perpetual copyright we have it's not as bad. I'll agree that the term patents are given is too long but I'm one of the few around here that is in favor of them. Not absolutely but to a reasonable degree. The patent system has flaws (major ones) but the idea of patents is something I support. I truly believe that it really does foster innovation. It's an incentive to innovate.
If Twitter let's others use it and collects royalties then it's not like Twitter alone is able to implement it and when the patent expires others can for free. Facebook on iOS has had this behavior for a while now.
I think people much like yourself are thinking of patents in absolute terms like they're all good or all bad. It's more complicated than that. They're a good thing that can be abused like prescription medication or guns. If we could just be sane about what gets to be patented, how long, and just generally use patents sanely we'd have no problem. So let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.