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Inventor Has Waited 43 Years For Patent Approval
An anonymous reader writes "If you think the average wait of 28.3 months for a patent to be approved is ridiculous, don't complain to Gilbert P. Hyatt. The 76-year-old inventor has been waiting over forty years for a ruling on whether his electronic signal to control machinery should be granted a patent. 'It's totally unconscionable,' said Brad Wright, a patent lawyer with Banner & Witcoff in Washington who specializes in computer-related applications and isn't involved in Hyatt's case. 'The patent office doesn't want to be embarrassed that they might issue a broad patent that would have a sweeping impact on the technology sector. Rather than be embarrassed, they're just bottling it up.'"
But they'll let Amazon patent "one-click" shopping?
Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all. -- Thomas J. Kopp
What value has this man added to a single piece of equipment sold in the last 40 years? What part of these machines relied on his effort or ingenuity? If his patent had never been filed, are we to seriously believe that progress would have been held back by so much as an hour.
Let drop this passive-aggressive geek myth of the vital "small-guy" inventor and the civilization changing ideas which supposedly emerge from his superior brain. It is far, far easier, and far, far better for society as a whole to simply regard all patent holders as parasites, and simply stop issuing them. Inventors can start their own companies or get a job like everyone else.
Reward belongs to those who add value. To those who produce things; produce wealth. it does not belong to the people who "thought" of doing so, or who had some "bright idea" sometimes in the 1970s. It belongs to the three generations of people since who put their -- unpatented -- ideas into action and made them a reality. To the people who competed based on the merits of their results, and not the entitlement they felt their intellects deserved.
It's time to put patents away. All patents. Our society will make better progress without them. Inventors are not worth the price being paid to parasites.
May the Maths Be with you!
No, he didn't.
But no one outside the patent office has seen the application, or the abstract, or anything.
It's all secret, because it's so old. As explained in TFA.
This sounds a lot like a submarine patent. The idea is that you file a patent on some generic idea, not necessarily realisable, and then continue it for years, sometimes decades, until the state of the art has advanced to the point where it can be realised. At that point your submarine patent emerges and you've now patented a field that others have spent years developing for you. The notorious Jerome Lemelson made a billion-dollar business out of this.
If this guy's really been at it for 43 years without ever appealing a patent office rejection, he doesn't really want a patent. He's another Lemelson looking for somebody to sue.
This asshole is running a standard 'Submarine Patent' play. Fiddle with the application until everything is using the tech and it's firmly embedded in daily use (lasers and UPC codes are other classic submarine patents) then sue everyone when the patent is finally granted.
Fuck this guy.
Gilbert Hyatt is a patent troll of the worst kind.
His patent are always overly broad and best described as 'Ideas' He uses the courts like a club, and intimidates people. When ever he gets a patent denial(often) he makes the patent office spend million in court, and he usually looses. If not always.
This is a guy who ,in 1990, submitted a patent for a micro controller. He claims to have invented the microchip, in 1990.
It was latter overturns, but he got millions in royalties and, surprise surprise, didn't have to pay to back.
Is anyone asking why is is suing after 43 years and not, say 30? or 20 years?
And sending a signal to control something has been done for 100 years. This article is just GIlbert Hyatt attempting to bully million out of people.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Most likely they are tired of him taking him to court every time the deny something of his and our just sitting on it.
Of course this is GIlbert Hyatt, so there might not even really be a patent, and its near certain that f there is a patent, it's more of an idea and nothing that's actual working. It's like he grabs whatever is starting to become well know, lists what it does, and the applies for patent.
Look at this submission from 1989. It's list of idea about how a microprocessor works.
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi...
Or this one form 1996 about how a kernel works:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
FYI, anybody who allegedly owes the state of California over $50 million in taxes earned way more than that. The maximum income tax rate in California in 1990 was 9.3% for individuals (although I'm not sure if individual income tax is the rate that would apply). We're looking at about $500 million in earnings for which he was allegedly dodging a $50 million tax. Not to mention that those $500 million he got was from a patent granted in 1990 for microprocessors, long after they were invented by someone else and in common use. Don't feel too sorry for him.
Damnit people, why doesn't anybody realize that the government is the people? A nearly $400 million dollar judgement paid out from the state of California is $400 million dollars in tax hikes (or college tuition hikes, or delayed infrastructure maintenance, or funding cuts for public schools, police departments, state parks, etc.) for everyone else that doesn't have $500 million in ill-gotten patent license deals to pay for lawyers.
I sometimes ask revealing, often ignorant-seeming questions. Maybe they're harder to answer than you think.