FTC to Examine Patent Application Process

Armchair Dissident writes "The BBC is running an article that suggests that the FTC is to look into the way that patents are reviewed and issued. If this article is correct it seems that many guesses as to how patents are issued were correct; with 95% of patent applications being approved. They may also address the issue of "patent trolls"."

Comments

Look out Forgent and Microsoft!

[newt_sd]

Any chance this could render some of the more idiotic patents worthless.

Case in point
Microsoft and their double click of death

and

The guy who patented swinging in a swing?

ITS ABOUT TIME THIS WAS REVIEWED

The article spells out the problem pretty plainly

[Weaselmancer]

The National Academy of Sciences is calling for more funding for the patent office where 3,000 examiners handle 350,000 applications a year with an average of 17 to 25 hours to check on the validity of a patent application.

Businesses claim a lack of due diligence at this stage often results in patents being granted that should not see the light of day.

There you have it, the entire problem in a nutshell. Too much work, and not enough people.

And I have a solution.

Public review for patents. Open source meets patent reform.

Here's how the new system might work. Someone applies for a patent, and it gets posted to a website for public review.

That gives the public the ability to search for prior art. If prior art is found, even after the patent is granted...zap. The patent is invalid. And if the prior art is more than...say 5 years old, the idea is now public domain and no longer patentable.

Also, widen the definition of prior art. Best example of that I can think of off the top of my head is Intel patenting a method to detect overclockers. Measure the cpu clock versus an internal clock. Compare. If they differ by more than a small percentage, shut down. In other words, they managed to patent a binary counter. Bogus. Simply using an established widget in a new way shouldn't be patentable. No more Bezos "with a computer" patents.

And no patent should be granted for more than 5 years or so. This is important, otherwise we could wind up in a technological backwater. Small countries (with no extradition treaties with the US) would be the next Silicon Valley. You think you're being outsourced now? Just wait until you can't program at all in the US due to fear of litigation.

I think that it should be possible to have an idea, patent it, and make your million. But not at the expense of the entire tech sector.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go double click something. ;^)

Weaselmancer