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'Patently Ridiculous' - What's Wrong With The PTO
PhxBlue writes "The St. Petersburg (FL) Times wrote an editorial this morning lambasting a patent system which allows patents for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and swinging sideways. It has some background on how the patent system became as FUBARed as it is, citing rulings by the Supreme Court in 1980 and by the federal patent appeals court in 1998; but more importantly, it brings the faults with the US patent process to a more public eye."
There are many indicators throughout history that have shown that patents and greedy people behind those patents have actually inhibited the progress of our society and culture.
Take for example Tesla. Without the many inventions he created, all patentless, we would be in dire straits indeed. He did not believe in making money from his inventions.
By patenting everything on the face of the earth, you increase cost, piracy/theft rates, and you effectively remove certain technologies from lower income households. Finally, it stagnates the future of that invention, because it cannot be used and matured without paying fee upon fee.
To the APO's credit they did retract the patent... ...but only in the face of public ridicule. That just means that patents are ludicrous to any and all may get retracted; ones that are just ridiculous to anyone with a decent knowledge of their field remain.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
The US patent system as it stands today is a system by which innovations are registered by the government with little or no background check. These innovation registrations are then challenged in court by those with competing interests. The problem with this system is that during the registration process it is assumed that the courts will check the validity of the patent, and during the court process it is assumed the patent office checked its validity. It takes a large deal of financial backing to challenge a patent in court, and a relatively small amount of money to obtain a patent. Thus, it is financially advantageous to file BS patents, and equally advantageous to settle with those companies who wield them.
I'm glad to see another site reporting on the issue, but I fail to see how this has changed since 1989.
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