Slashdot Mirror
SCOTUS Set To Examine Combinatory Patents
eldavojohn writes "The Washington Post is reporting that businesses are split on the current situation with patents in the United States. From the article: 'The court is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday on what's obvious when older inventions are combined to create something new. The law says an invention that's "obvious" isn't patentable, but the definition isn't clear despite decades of litigation. The ambiguity, critics say, has led to an explosion of patents as companies stake claims on everything in sight, from strategies for avoiding taxes to golf ball designs. The result has been extensive and costly legal wrangling as companies of all sizes fight over who's infringing what. In some cases, small companies acquire patents not to develop new products but to sue for a quick windfall.' This sounds like some common criticism of the patent system that often pops up on Slashdot. The last part of the article mentions that most legal experts are expecting some changes to come of this. Hopefully soon we'll see some changes to the patent system for a better concept of intellectual property."
Most reasonable legal systems are tuned to avoid "false positives". That is, it is acceptable that some number of people who actually committed crimes walk away unpunished, as long as those who are punished are done so justly.
If a country's legal system does not attain to this rule, then it is probably not deemed safe to visit there.
It is a principle well known to legislators, law enforcers, lawyers and citizens in generals.
And I think it should be applied to patents as well. Only if you prove beyond doubt that your patent is non obvious, innovative, and all the criteria apply, it should be granted.
In exactly the same way that nobody is (or at least nobody should be) sent to jail if there are doubts. If there are doubts then you are free.
The patents system is not flawed per se. The problem is that it is being abused with a high noise to signal ratio.