Slashdot Mirror
Broken Patent System? Google, Apple Disagree
Whiney Mac Fanboy writes "The AlwaysOn Stanford Summit featured the panel discussion 'The Patent Crisis: Crossroads for the Business of Technology.' Speakers included patent lawyers from Google, IBM, and Apple. According to The Register, Google's and Apple's patent jocks had diametrically opposing views. Google's head of patents believes the system is in crisis: 'The Patent Office is overburdened,' she said. 'The volume of patents going in is huge. And the quality of patents coming out — it could be better.' But Apple's chief patent counsel said the US patent system was 'not broken' and 'not in crisis,' calling it 'the best in the world.'"
The way that patent examiners work is by number of actions on a case. Each patent application is a case and there are only at most 2 actions on a case: first action, usually a rejection for something; final action, either the patent is allowed or denied. Allowing a patent on the first round only gives you one action. The patent examiners are expected to complete a certain number of actions each week. As the patent examiner stays there longer they need to complete more actions. A new patent examiner, GS-5 or GS-7 would have to do about 4 patents every 2 weeks, where a GS-11 would have to do about 7 every two weeks. This never ever ever takes into account the complexity of the patent either. A 10 page patent application gets the same attention as a 150 page application. It does not take into consideration that the job is boring as hell unless you like dealing with lawyers.
Many patent examiners are not from the technical fields that they are working in and some are fresh out of college. Patent examiners are government employees and thus have the same lazy attitude that most government employees do.
Anyone who has been on /. for the past 5 years and seen some of the stupid issues that have come up because of patents would know that the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) is completely jacked up and not working.
Take it from me, I worked there, and to reject a patent I would have come up with any f***ed up logic just to get it out the door on time, and usually allow them the second time around, unless I really did come up with some good BS
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
If an inventor can't get a valid patent for a (let's assume) perfectly novel and new invention on their own with reasonable cost and chance of success then the system is BROKEN. That's how it should be defined.
I do like this way of thinking of things. It could be productive to think of situations which would cause us to say the thing is broken. Some ideas come to mind:
These are just suggestions, and you might disagree. However, even if you do agree, I still don't know what should be done about it. How can we improve our current system or build a new one which won't have these problems?
Yes and, furthermore, Apple's and Google's views are not necessarily opposed.
... "We need to focus on fixing the litigation system. That's most relevant.", is most certainly disingenuous. Patents are very rarely litigated because the stakes are so high. Apple plays the patent game as aggressively as anybody and this is an attempt for them to direct attention away from the process of bogus patent hoarding which they so eagerly participate. Unlike the majority of large corporations, Apple uses its patent portfolio offensively.
The other quote from Apple, "Most patents issued are never litigated and never licensed,"
Saying the patent system is the best in the world doesn't mean it isn't hopelessly corrupt.
Um, doesn't it go without saying that a bunch of patent lawyers, who are undoubtedly extremely well paid for working and exploiting the existing convoluted patent system, wouldn't want anything to change? If software patents go away, a certain percentage of patent lawyers go away. If the patent system was better designed, easier to understand, simpler for individuals to work with, then another percentage of patent lawyers would go away.
So most oncologists don't want a cure for cancer to be found? I've talked with a lawyer who works on patents on several occasions about this, approaching it from a slashdot-centric the-system-is-broken kind of viewpoint, but after hearing her talk about it I've come to the realization that the system isn't quite as bad as we make it out to be here. It is not easy to get a patent; patent applications are frequently denied, or revisions are demanded, and just because we've seen some dumb patents get granted doesn't mean that the whole system is somehow irredeemably broken.
It's like the people who argue the legal system is broken because they cherry-pick instances where frivolous lawsuits succeeded (usually completely fabricated instances).
I couldn't agree with Apple's counsel more.
Everyone seems content to blame the PTO for the problems in the patent system. The reason there are patent trolls applying for superfluous patents is not because they know they can sneak the applications through the PTO's inefficient, government run system. The patent litigation laws in the US are the source of the real problem. The massive potential returns on litigation make it economical for the trolls to exist, and, in turn, force the big companies to use their patents "like shields" against each other. One golden patent application in a 1000 is all it takes for a troll to pay for the fees associated with all of them.
Get rid of the trolls and unnecessary patents by making them uneconomical, not by forcing the PTO to hire PhD's. With a lower upside to litigation, every application that is filed must necessarily be of a higher quality in order to make it worthwhile economically.