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The Good Old Patent Law - Revisited

Posted by michael on from the patent-leather dept.

trifakir writes "Scientific American talks about the imperfections of the current patent law, subject to the book of two authors from the Harvard Business School. It seems that even business people start seeing the insanity of the current patent system. This time it seems that they are not only criticizing, but suggesting some procedural amendments (e.g. patent conflicts resolved by a judge and not by a jury). Do you think that any of these has chances being heard by the big wigs?"

6 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No changes for the better while... by MemoryDragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, one solution would be to place heavy costs onto the uspto for every patent which is shot out in court. Another better system would be to revisit patents once in a while in an open non commercial discussion (cough internet forums) so that bogus patents can be shot out in time without causing costs left and right. Third a patent should be connected to an actual product which already has been sold seriously. This would push non producing patent grabbers who only produce court cases, out of the system. Fourth, patent times should be altered to different running times in different field. 20 years makes sense in the medical field, in software nothing makes sense more than five years. Fifth, why patents in software at all? The field has prospered much more than other technical fields, without having them. And now patents are all over the place, the whole field is in a commercial crisis.

  2. This article is overly optimistic by Vlad_the_Inhaler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It seems that even business people start seeing the insanity of the current patent system.

    As long as 'business people' in the form of very large companies are trying to get something similar to US patent law into European Union law, I won't believe in a change of opinion at the top. Everyone knows that the US system is broken, but the odds are still on it being adopted in the EU.

    --
    Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
  3. Einstein said it best by slimyrubber · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them."

    --
    [ I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance ] -- Isaac Asimov
  4. Re:No changes for the better while... by kristofme · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I fully agree with most points, but definitely not the third one: "a patent should be connected to an actual product which already has been sold seriously"..
    Patents are supposed to protect and stimulate inventions for those that do the research, requiring an actual product that is being sold makes this very hard for individual researchers, and very easy for the big companies.

  5. Re:No changes for the better while... by RevDedd · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Third a patent should be connected to an actual product which already has been sold seriously.
    Is this to say that open-source (or otherwise free products) should not be able to get a patent? Isn't this a problem for people like the GPLers?
  6. Nothing changes for big companies by freeduke · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Big companies, such as IBM, have so many patents that everytime someone comes with an innovative patented idea, they just sue him telling that his inovative software breaks 100 IBM patents, and so IBM proposes him to sign a cross-patent licence, that allows IBM to use his idea and IBM won't sue him anymore.

    So due to the patenting policy of all the big companies, no new idea is rewarding for his inventor in the field of software patents. Because a software implies so many ideas, it is subject ot a lot of patents, that is the main difference with the other industry fields.

    You should have a look at Richard Stallman's talk about patents, it is far more informative than this article, and also the presented books.

    Patents are killing inovation, and let big companies use every new idea thanks to cross-patent licences...