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US Patent Operations May Shut Down In Second Week of February (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said it may have to cease patent operations in the second week of February if the partial government shutdown continues, though it has money for trademark work through mid-April. Any furlough of staff could mean significant delays in reviewing the tens of thousands of applications on inventions for things like telecommunications hardware and the next cutting-edge medical treatments. Now it takes on average 15.8 months before a patent applicant can expect a preliminary response from an examiner. More than 640,000 patent applications were filed in fiscal 2018.
The patent office, part of the Commerce Department, is funded entirely by user fees and gets no tax dollars, but it requires an appropriation from Congress to spend the money it collects. In fiscal 2018, it had a budget of $3.3 billion and has asked for $3.5 billion for fiscal 2019. The patent office sets aside authorized money in what's called an operating reserve to account for "temporary changes in our cash flow" and that's what it has been using to stay open since the partial shutdown began Dec. 22. At the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, it said it had 1.3 months of operating expenses for patent operations and 4.9 months of expenses for trademark operations.
The patent office, part of the Commerce Department, is funded entirely by user fees and gets no tax dollars, but it requires an appropriation from Congress to spend the money it collects. In fiscal 2018, it had a budget of $3.3 billion and has asked for $3.5 billion for fiscal 2019. The patent office sets aside authorized money in what's called an operating reserve to account for "temporary changes in our cash flow" and that's what it has been using to stay open since the partial shutdown began Dec. 22. At the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, it said it had 1.3 months of operating expenses for patent operations and 4.9 months of expenses for trademark operations.
Get a rope!
This might actually break the deadlock on the shutdown. Surely the corporate masters won't allow the patent system to shut down.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The Democrats say Businesses have to much control of the government.
The Republicans say Government have too much control of business.
This is a fair statement of their positions and the truth is they both are wrong. Business and government NEED each other. Not too much and not too little but they quite literally cannot exist without each other. Businesses need to be kept in check by government so that their interests don't run too far contrary to that of the greater society. Governments need businesses to channel profit motives in economically useful ways that governments aren't generally well equipped to handle. Without businesses, governments cannot raise the capital needed to govern properly and without governments, businesses don't have a stable ecosystem in which to operate. Businesses cannot enforce contracts without government. Government isn't very good at raising large amounts of capital. Businesses need regulation to keep the Tragedy of the Commons from becoming real and to keep incentives aligned with those of society. Governments need guidance on when they cross the line to too much regulation. They need each other and don't work well without a good relationship.
There seems to be symbiotic relationship between a business and government. Which both sides thinks the other is actually being parasitic.
There IS a symbiotic relationship between them. The problem is that a lot of bogus political rhetoric and self interest has gotten in the way of a lot of people recognizing this fact lately. But businesses and governments in our modern understanding of them both don't really exist without each other. We need each to keep the other in check and we need both to have a civil and prosperous society.
What seems to be the problem, is really a good lack of a middle ground.
The middle ground is and always has been there. Honestly they've generally done a pretty good job of figuring out where it is. The US and other major economies reflect this fact in their economic success. The process isn't always neat and tidy and there is a lot of debate and messy politics but it tends to get figured out. The problem lately is that the government politics at least in the US has kind of run away from the bargaining table for a variety of reasons. Sound bite ideology gets political power even when it bears no resemblance to evidence based governing.
I think Disney has realised that the writing is on the wall for Mickey. Thanks to the Internet, there's now too much public awareness of copyright and activism is much easier compared to when Sonny Bono helped them screw everyone over in 1998. All is not lost for them though, there's already precedent from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle that it's a progressive process - you'll only gain access to each "version" of Mickey or whoever (and other characters, backstory, events, etc.) as that individual version lapses, and how you define a "version" is a matter of debate. Specific details, like the coloured buttons, will be covered and milked for every last cent until they individually lapse.
Besides, despite reports of "Solo" making a loss, I'm pretty sure that the revenue from the Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar franchises (amongst others) that are under the Disney umbrella is more than enough to make up for any loss in revenue they might have from early versions of classic Disney characters - it's not like they sell much (any?) merchandise based around the "Steamboat Willie" version of Mickey, is it? Unless a miracle happens and we get a reduction in copyright duration, they're going to be under Disney's copyright for many decades before their turn comes to enter the public domain. Trademarks are also valid for as long as you care to enforce them, so expect them to enforce that just as aggresively once the critical copyrights do start to expire.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
The original concept of patents wasn't bad. They were meant to cover the tangible implementation of an idea and give the inventor a way to protect profits for a period (the first patent was 10 years) and then the information about the invention was released freely after the patent expired so that others could make duplicates and/or improve on it.
Of course it only took a few decades for people to start patenting stupid shit like salt. That lead to problems and a sort of patent reform in the 16th century that invalidated virtually all previously granted patents. After that, new inventions had to be novel and unique. For a while , patents worked reasonably well and helped drive the industrial revolution.
Sometime around the early 1800s, patents started being allowed for improvements to existing devices (not entirely a bad thing) and ideas that had no specific use (which was an entirely bad thing and is the basis for the patent trolls we suffer from today).
The late 1800s/early 1900s saw the rise of the use of patents to block competition and create monopolies. From there on, things have generally gone downhill with patents increasingly being granted for stupidly simple things like rounded corners, business models, software that does nothing special and overly broad patents.
We've pulled back a bit and the overly broad patents used by patent trolls have increasingly been being invalidated, but patents are still problematic. Still, the fundamental idea isn't a bad one. The problems primarily stem from the constant expansion of the scope of what can be patented.
(and yes, I've left out about a billion pages of details and significant moments in patent history, but I'm not writing a novel... there are lots of good websites that discuss the history of patents if you're interested in a more comprehensive history)
The patent system is a farce
Finally I can start ignoring all those patents that have been keeping me down... Rounded corners on this, rounded corners for that, rounded corners everywhere.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
There was a budget last year - a bipartisan one - ready to be signed by the President. It included billions for border security.
Fake news. There was only a CR, no border security funding included at all. A proposal was floated for a CR with $1.5 billion for border security, but the Dems rejected it.
All this after Trump promised after signing a pork-filled spending bill, with no border funding, back in March that "I will not sign a bill like this again."
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Besides, despite reports of "Solo" making a loss, I'm pretty sure that the revenue from the Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar franchises (amongst others) that are under the Disney umbrella is more than enough to make up for any loss in revenue they might have from early versions of classic Disney characters - it's not like they sell much (any?) merchandise based around the "Steamboat Willie" version of Mickey, is it?
No, but they do use that rendition of Mickey in a currently shipping product, Disney Heroes. When you win a battle with Mickey in your lineup, he transforms into Steamboat Willie Mickey and blows some musical notes while spinning a ship's wheel. Presumably they've done this for the precise purpose you've pointed out.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Patent trolls have been temporarily neutralized.
funded entirely by user fees and gets no tax dollars, but it requires an appropriation from Congress to spend the money it collects.
Where we have a government service run by user fees: the affairs should be structured so that user fees collected
are automatically appropriated to providing the service without the need for further intervention by congress;
that way congress can spend their budgeting time focusing on allocating the Tax revenues correctly.
to crush folks via lawsuits.
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When this happens, they've just been making people work unpaid. It happened when the people who verify income weren't showing up (threatening new mortgages). It happened when the people processing tax returns weren't showing up. It happened when the people sending checks to agribusiness weren't showing up. It happened when the people approving offshore oil rigs for safety weren't showing up (and thus new rigs couldn't open)
Now, the people who enable small business (e.g. those who approve craft beers) or regulate big business (e.g. FDA inspections of food processing plants) are still sitting around.
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If that East Texas district court that always rubber-stamps the patent trolls has to shut down too, that will give us a window of opportunity to ram through some major technological advances before the submarine patent machine can reawaken to stifle them once again.
and then the information about the invention was released freely after the patent expired so that others could make duplicates and/or improve on it
Not quite. The information contained in patents is in the public domain from the outset. And it is available for limited use for further research and development and education.
Have gnu, will travel.
All this after Trump promised after signing a pork-filled spending bill, with no border funding, back in March that "I will not sign a bill like this again.
"Read my lips: no new taxes!"
Much as I hope Trump sticks to his guns, I have little faith in politicians. Only y faith in Trump's ego gives me hope.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Right, the DNC runs the country, got it.
Besides, despite reports of "Solo" making a loss, I'm pretty sure that the revenue from the Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar franchises (amongst others) that are under the Disney umbrella is more than enough to make up for any loss in revenue they might have from early versions of classic Disney characters - it's not like they sell much (any?) merchandise based around the "Steamboat Willie" version of Mickey, is it?
Maybe not much, but they do actually still sell some merchandise based on Steamboat WIllie's version of Mickey. Particularly now since it's the 90th anniversary year of Mickey Mouse. I've got such an item in my house.
My suggestion to fix copyright extension is to allow it to be extended but at a price. Giving it away like the Bono Act did is pure insanity. If these copyrights are so valuable then why aren't they costing the owners to extend? My suggestion is to keep the current law and allow extensions after it in blocks of 10 years at a time but the holder has to pay a graduating fee for each renewal.
First 10 year extension - $100,000
Second 10 year extension - $1 million
Third 10 year extension - $10 million
Fourth 10 year extension - $100 million
Fifth 10 year extension - $1 billion
and so on. Maybe after the 6th extension you charge 10 trillion or something like that. Eventually people will stop renewing the copyrights because of cost, but allowing them the option of doing so means if they are so valuable to keep then people can pay to do so. My solution doesn't require the Bono Act to be done away with. Just start charging for renewals. And if people don't pay in time, too bad, so sad. Stuff fell into the public domain in the past because people forgot to renew. The real problems with the Bono Act are the automatic renewals and not charging for them.
Mickey is trademarked. That will never expire. Disney has never been at any risk of losing control of Mickey merch. All this copyright horror has been over the 12 cents or so of revenue from the old films themselves; the characters are sill protected.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Business and government NEED each other. Not too much and not too little but they quite literally cannot exist without each other.
That's not true government can exist withtout businesses but businesses cannot exist without government.
The Soviet Union had a government but had no businesses. While it was certainly a terrible government it does go to show that government can exist without business. Similarly if you go far enough back in history you can find other governments without businesses e.g. first nation tribes in North America. The reverse is certainly not true though since the laws which allow businesses to exist require a government to create them.
I'd have said this is a GOOD thing, given all we have to thank them for, but most likely the only part that would really shut down would be the part that pretends to check for prior art or whatever. So....meh.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of this proposal too. It lets people monetize things as long as they like via an exclusive copyright and also encourages the copyright owner to produce new content to help them keep the subject of the copyright profitable through public awareness. Sure, they can produce some dross to do that, but that runs the risk of trashing the franchise before they get the necessary returns on their extension fees. Ultimately though everything is going to cross the threshold of the copyright fees exceeding the returns and enter the public domain, ideally doing so before all examples are lost as seems to have happened with many early recordings.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
The "danger" to Disney is that if Steamboat Willie went into the public domain, anyone could distribute the Steamboat Willie movie and derivatives of it as long as they don't use the phrase "Mickey Mouse" anywhere, but implying their work is part of the Mickey Mouse franchise. This is uncharted territory (how much will it dilute the brand etc), which is why Disney wants to avoid it. Still, such a long copyright protection term is ridiculous, let Disney figure this out.