A Licensing Opportunity
1st of March, 1600 Anno Domini
To his majesty Felipe Hapsburg III,
His majesty Christian den Fjerde, king of Denmark-Norway, sends you greetings and congratulations on your recent ascension and wishes your reign to extend peace and prosperity to Spain.
We are writing to alert you that your realm’s “New Spain” project infringes on methods belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway. We wish to offer you an opportunity for licensing, including back-royalties for past activities of New Spain.
In particular, the kingdom of Denmark-Norway lays claim to various patents and other intellectual property stemming from its “Vinland” project with various filings contained in the Íslendingasögur. Although the Vinland project is no longer an ongoing project, in bankruptcy its assets have reverted to the crown and among these are various techniques infringed upon by New Spain. The most important of these patents is for “Growth in Commerce and Enrichment of the Realm Through Expansion to Lands Across the Ocean.” However New Spain also infringes on various other of the Vinland patents, including “A Method for Enslavement of Skrælingjar” and “Export of Agricultural Commodities Derived From Exotic Plants.”
We would therefore like to offer you the opportunity to license the Vinland patents to cover your activities in New Spain. A licensing deal must account not only prospectively but retrospectively for all such stuffs exported back into Christendom. It has come to our attention that New Spain has to date exported approximately 17,000 tons of silver in addition to several hundred tons of gold and many more tons of exotic useful things such as tabac, maize, cocoa, and various spices.
Please send an embassy to discuss licensing terms and royalties immediately so as to avoid a cease and desist on all activities of New Spain.
His Majesty King Christian IV
Frederiksborg Palace
Copenhagen, Denmark-Norway
[cross-posted to Code and Culture]
Wouldn’t the patents have expired by then?
— Guan Yang · Oct 14, 06:14 PM · #
Guan Yang,
Possibly. Some early IP protections existed in perpetuity. However, yes, by the standards of modern American patent law (which is what I was satirizing), the roughly 500 years from Vinland to Columbus would lapse the patent. My point however was to satirize the idea that the heirs to a failed enterprise should have any claims to a viable enterprise using independently invented techniques that are similar in some way to those of the failed project.
— Gabriel · Oct 14, 07:05 PM · #
The possibility of earning rents from future Spanish efforts in the Americas provided an incentive for the initial exploration of Vinland, because the investors knew that it would potentially be profitable even if the settlement failed.
;-)
— Guan Yang · Oct 14, 08:29 PM · #