Friday
Sep072012
The patent system?
Friday, September 7, 2012 at 3:00AM Is the Patent system outdated, ill-suited and possibly too biased to manage technology IPs? Should there be an independent Patent body outside of the USA? Thanks to David.
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Reader Comments (5)
Yes Big Time.
Not necessarily - loads of empirical rodents and research to form a cost/benefit analysis is needed.
Not sure what is meant by an independent patent body - is this a call for globally harmonised patent laws?
The system definitely isn't fit for purpose, and it's not just in technology: http://news.uk.msn.com/blog/trending-blogpost.aspx?post=972c5c84-7460-4dfb-8e67-cd892718ef6d
As for what it could be replaced by, some common sense would be nice. The US Patent Office grants patents on pretty much anything and the several of the courts don't have a clue.
If patents applied to music no-one could afford to write a tune with any major or minor chords...
There should be a unified patent organization or at least rules/laws. The process needs to be refined. Does making a button round instead of square constitute an intellectual advance? The biggest problem seems to be determining whether there was prior art.
Yes, and also determining what should be patentable. Admittedly my link was about a trademark case rather than a patent case but the end result is the same as Apple's apparent patenting of rectangles with rounded corners and so forth.