Fnord wrote:
After reading through all the posts in this thread, I came to the realization that most of you do not understand the difference between an invention, an innovation, a discovery, and an idea.
INVENTION: An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process. An invention that achieves a completely unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough.
INNOVATION: An innovation occurs when an improvement is made upon a previous invention, or a new process for creating an already-existing object or a result is developed.
DISCOVERY: A discovery is the revelation of a natural substance or phenomenon.
IDEA: An idea is no more than a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action.
Most of you people seem to have only ideas, not inventions; some of you seem to have developed, or are in the process of developing innovations to other people's inventions; and only a small number of you seem to have made any significant discoveries to advance science, engineering, and technology.
Oh, and by the way ... no one is "stealing" your ideas if they develop them on their own -- just ask Leibniz about his new method for calculating maxima and minima, for example.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/inventionInvention: anything invented or devised
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/inventInvent: to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance; to produce or create with the imagination.