Slashdot Mirror
The Patent Epidemic
cheesedog writes "BusinessWeek is running an editorial titled The Patent Epidemic, which chronicles not only how abusive and absurd our patent system has become for software and business method patents, but how it hurts even traditionally innovative fields such as the automobile industry. Interesting commentary can be found in the regular places, with Right to Create suggesting action you can take to stem the spread of this epidemic, and Patent Prospector attempting to refute BusinessWeek's arguments."
A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a slashdot reader asking me if I'm behind a "libertarian" conspiracy on slashdot. I brought it up at an anarchocapitalist meeting I had at my place in the middle of December, and the AnarCaps generally laughed -- none of them have the time or the drive to back up my posts with positive moderation.
Now I'm seeing similar "libertarian" pushes at various newspapers and even noted on my local TV morning news (Chicago's WGN9 news team, hilarious people) a more freedom-loving perspective on some of their opinion pieces.
It confuses me -- as a freedom lover, I'm known to promote my views heavily one very blog and forum I'm on. For years I was beaten down for my odd views, but now it seems like I'm just one amongst many, even in the mass media. What the hell is going on here?
On topic: all the links provide interesting viewpoints on the problems with patents (and copyright and trademark and all that). The downside to the articles is that the recommended changes require MORE laws and MORE government intrusion rather than less. Does anyone really think that the same coercive laws can really be fixed with more coercive laws? Will we see laws "protecting" freedoms by taking them away?
In order for a patent to be valid, the entity (person or company) owning the patent must produce at least one (1) working, real, physical example of whatever it is that they are patenting. Otherwise, the product/concept/business process/whatever else we've decided is patentable this week is subject to invalidation if someone else can produce a working example first. This would completely eliminate "patent trolls" and would provide a much larger incentive for entities seeking patents to bring their ideas/concepts/products to market more quickly.
Fight psychopharmacological mccarthyism. http://www.norml.org/
SlashDot recently covered another BusinessWeek opinion piece entitled "Cutting Through the Patent Thicket", which argued that "the current U.S. system is harming innovation. A simplified process with stronger patents would encourage economic growth".
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
16 year old kid invents 2 cool things, takes them to 2 companies for good-faith reviews. both are patented by the companies within a month and are never commercially marketed.
just one of many seedy things i've heard patents being used for. of course the situation is different, but it leads to the same result... stunted innovation.
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
But isn't that exactly what our current patent system allows? I.e., there isn't another priceline.com because priceline has a monopoly on Internet reverse auctions.
When I look at the number of patents issued that cover essential Internet techonologies and even simple programming practices, I see a world that teeters on the edge of widespread regulation and central control.
To date, many of these [defensive] patents haven't been excercised. But we are beginning to see the lawyers come out of the woodwork, so to speak, and trying to put anything up on the web is increasingly a process of obtaining the correct "permissions" from those holding exclusive patent monopolies.
I know this from personal experience, having had to remove a simple research project, website, and java applet from the web while in college because of a cease-and-desist letter received from a patent holder. It didn't matter that I didn't think the patents applied to my work. It didn't matter that I thought I could win the "right" to continue my work in a court of law -- I didn't have the resources to go through that battle, so I folded.
And I'm not the only one.
In my case, the project I worked on wasn't earth-shattering, but I certainly think it could have made the world just a tiny-eeny-wee bit better had I been allowed to continue. My fear is that we are squashing a lot of really earth-shattering stuff that could benefit all of us, as well as their inventors.
I think it's the patent systems fault because it explicitly allows the abuse of the system. There is absolutely no oversight on what gets patented and what not, it's *WAY* too easy to get a patent on something frivolous, it should not be possible to get something patented without actual development and the presentation of a working device. Business methods and software should NOT be patentable at all, or only for an extremely short period.
The sort of people I worked (not WORK, I've been self employed for quite a while now) would do just about anything to make a buck, I was fairly young, fairly naive but I got wise and split with them and their ways.
Taking your 'idea' and underselling you is not the kind of abuse I was talking about. I'm specifically referring to submarine patents and patenting stuff with no intention whatsoever of ever marketing the device (or even developing a working prototype).
The kind of protection that is needed would push the cost of a patent up quite high, but in my opinion that would be a good thing. It would be an initial barrier that would get people (and especially the corporations that take out hundreds of patents annually) to pay attention to the filing process and the requirements. It would also make sure that you only patent those things that you actually intend to spend development capital on.
If it's 'just a good idea' you should not be able to patent it at all.
If it took you hundreds of hours of sweat and labour and mortgaging your house to research your idea your patent should be a solid one.
Right now a patent is just another gun in the armory of larger corps. As a small time inventor you will probably not have the stamina and the funds it will take to defend your patent, and as a larger corp you can use the patent system to beat up competitors smaller than you.
MP3 Search Engine
1 - Make patents like trademarks, they have to be actively used and defended. This means that a patent holder must actively be engaged in the manufacture or production of the patented item (or at least show demonstrable intent to do so - like arranging funding to build a factory). That would effectively end the "patent troll" business model of being in business to only licence patents. If the holder is "too small" to own the factory individually himself ,then he can be a principle of the corporation or business that does.
2- If not ending software patents altogather, limit them to 5 years. Five years is practically forever in the software market. (perhaps they should do this with software copyrights too)
3- Because patents (and IP generally) are the work of the human mind, make patent ownership non-transferable and limited to the private individual who actually used his mind to invent it. No corporate ownership allowed.(Oh? You say that IBM funded the lab and not the indivdual inventor? IBM paid his salary? Well, then IBM can contract with the inventor to have a favorable or royalty-free license.) Corporations would be able to license, but never own. Provision can be made for joint ownersship in small limited partnerships when more than one person collaberated.
4 - Elminate method patents completely. If a method is secret, then it is already protected as a "trade secret".
Imagine creating a Prior Art section in Slashdot.
One or two articles per day is posted describing in English (not USPTO-ease) a software patent being applied for.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration