Patents: Ideas vs Implementations

The cluster centers on repeated clarifications that patents protect specific implementations of ideas, not abstract ideas themselves, often distinguishing patents from copyrights.

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Sample Comments

COGlory Mar 20, 2017 View on HN

You can't patent an idea. You can only patent an implementation of an idea.

wb36 Jun 10, 2018 View on HN

You can't patent an idea, only an implementation of an idea.

rayiner Aug 23, 2012 View on HN

We're talking about patents not copyrights...

gaius Aug 7, 2010 View on HN

You can't patent an idea - only an implementation.

pfarnsworth Jun 10, 2018 View on HN

You can't patent ideas only specific implementation of ideas.

ghaff Jan 14, 2023 View on HN

It's implementations (supposedly) that are covered by patents. Ideas are not.

gnaritas Sep 12, 2013 View on HN

Patents don't cover ideas, they cover implementations of those ideas.

anigbrowl Feb 27, 2025 View on HN

Just make your own. Patents protect how something is done, not the idea of doing it.

lolc Oct 7, 2020 View on HN

You can't patent an idea. You can patent the implementation of it if you're specific enough.

my123 Apr 5, 2021 View on HN

Those are protected by patents, not copyrights.