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PTO Eliminates "Technological Arts" Requirement
MdntToker writes to tell us that the Patent Board has issued an opinion which removes the existing procedure of rejecting patents under 35 U.S.C. 101 as outside of the "technological arts". From the article: "Our determination is that there is currently no judicially recognized separate "technological arts" test to determine patent eligible subject matter under 101. We decline to create one. Therefore, it is apparent that the examiner's rejection can not be sustained."
Time to go patent all my fiction writings, before someone else does it.
This is the dumbest thing I've ever even imagined. Just when you think it cannot possibly get any worse.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
...In the direction of making patents completely and utterly useless.
Now all they have to do is remove the prior art clauses and were in patent utopia.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
So now they aren't even going to be limiting patents to software and "business methods"? In another 5 years we're all going to have to pay license fees to take a crap without being sued for violating a patent for "method of voiding bowels into a porcelain fixture while seated."
But that won't be the end of it: microphones in the toilet will be listening to make sure it doesn't sound like the tune to some Britney Spears song, while cameras examine the shape of the turds to see if they resemble a corporate logo. I can't wait to see which company owns the rights to each particular method for wiping your ass.
Come on, they had to do this at some point. All intellectual works are basically discovery of some *previously existing* but useful aspect of reality. If you invent a new mousetrap, you're discovering the previously-existing aspect of reality that some organization of different materials is better at catching mice. If you write a book, you're discovering the previously-existing aspect of reality that people like a certain combination of words. Trying to classify one kind as "technological" and the other as not gets really tricky.
Next on the list: the patent office stops rejecting discoveries as being "too theoretical". Imagine working around those patents!
Rank my idea: http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/node/531
The reason that the technological art standard does not come up much as a reason for rejection is that, generally, people whose invention didn't meet that standard wouldn't even bother filing a patent. Patent lawyers wouldn't waste their time.
Now that this particular court has ruled differently, expect a rash of filings that would previously have been rejected under this clause.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
A vibrant economy requires resources to be used efficiently. In theory, patents are supposed to help this process by increasing the incentive to invest in capital. Indeed, such investment can benefit both the inventor and the end user. As such, patents encourage the production of new capital, and the new capital is often more efficient at using resources than the previous capital. Thus the economy grows.
However, it appears as though America is reaching a point where patents interfere with the process so much that productivity is diminished. When an inventor has to search for patents when designing every portion of a capital work, less time is spent on developing the capital itself. Thus the creation of new capital diminishes, and resources are not used as efficiently. That can eventually cause the economy to basically rot.
This is not what the American economy needs, considering its various other problems (massive debt, inflated stock markets, a housing bubble, and so forth).
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
It seems there are actually examiners at the USPTO that are willing to call bullshit on a bogus patent. That offers a bit of encouragement.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Taking this doctrine to its logical extreme may, unfortunately, be the only way to force people to recognise how flawed it is. In that regard, this may be a useful decision.
Does the patented process fall under "Science" or does it fall under "Useful Arts"?
The court in question declined to create a standard for "Useful Arts" because that is not their responsibility -- the Congress should define Useful Arts, and the Courts could then apply that definition.
One of the dissenting judges specifically asked for this.
The three consenting judges did not, but typically when the court declines to establish some standard, they are implying that someone else has that responsibility.
So all the people who are against "Activist Judges" should be happy.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
It's become clear that since the patent office is willing to let anyone patent anything with very minimal checking on validity that patents will effectively end productivity and innovation in the US (and everywhere that has an enforcement treaty with the US). So either we cripple our economy and technological advancement or we modify patents so they don't strangle innovation. So ditch them or limit the duration to a more reasonable timeframe (given the current rate of advancement).
Just because he did one thing correctly does not make everything he did correct. The workplace and labor laws were coming anyway. However, for FDR's signature on that, we also ended up with a lot of terrible programs, such as welfare and Social Security. While we aren't working 7 days a week and 10 hours a day, we *are* working 5 days and 8 hours a day for 60 years, and the majority of people in the country barely keep their heads above water in the process. Add to that the high taxation that everyone endures, and it's pretty messy. We have an unstable currency (see Federal Reserve and the gold standard). We have tremendous numbers of people working for government instead of in private sector. And then there's the fact that even parts of the labor reform have been bad for the country...
No, FDR was not a good thing, and we shouldn't thank him for all the harm he caused.
Your patent is supposed to not duplicate prior art and it is supposed to be non-obvious.
Both of these criteria are criteria honoured in the work to register a patent in good faith (a search for prior art) and after the fact, by the fact your patent can be challenged.
A lot of the most obvious patents will not be upheld if challenged and either meaningful prior art exists or if the patent actually *is* obvious. In the Litigious States of America, this mechanism for defeating patents should not be surprising.
It is, however, expensive to register patents. It is also expensive to challenge them. This gives the leverage to the financially wealthy. It gives even more leverage to larger companies that don't do anything but patent registration and litigation - they don't spend any money inovating, just patenting other people's ideas and chasing down infringers. Usually this results in out of court settlements rather than challenges, since it could cost you $100K to challenge a patent, and $20K to license it from the current patent holder.
We've created a system that has within it a built in niche for a group of butt-sucking parasites who do no actual work. I'm not talking about lawyers, but of patent attack/defense companies that don't *make* anything. They are just storehouses for intellectual property, not with the idea of protecting of the inventors or even their investors, but simply for profit. They act as leghold traps on innovation, rather than incentives.
This is the surest sign that the system is broken. The patent system itself now has so many companies co-opted into the machine that they can't imagine life without it. And their fear keeps the system going strong and growing. And of course, as it grows, it stifles invention and innovation, instead of protecting it as it probably did way back when the patents were first envisioned.
At one time, it did bring together investors and inventors because it helped ensure RoI for the investors, because anyone who knocked off their process or product could be litigated against and punished. Thus it fostered innovation.
That day is long past. What we have left is the rotting carcass of a system that protected innovation, and the only creatures that enjoy hanging around rotting carcasses are maggots, flies, and carrion eaters. And that's what the Patent system has develoved to.
Get rid of it, because it no longer serves the purpose it was meant for.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."