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Patents should protect individuals not corporations
By Skelum on 8/8/2011 3:26:42 PM , Rating: 3
The patent office needs to reconsider their mission... They should focus in protecting individual inventions against giants but not corporations vs corporations...

Big corporations should compete on their ability to execute and deliver quality products not on suing each other on patent infringements.

My two cents!

By Sazabi19 on 8/8/2011 4:17:56 PM , Rating: 3
That's why so many more people are mad at Apple.

By foolsgambit11 on 8/9/2011 4:06:45 AM , Rating: 2
Sounds great, but it's pretty impracticable as a law. It's the same reason that "too big to fail" is such a problem - who decides where to draw the line? Another analogy would be the Supreme Court ruling that everybody knows pornography when they see it. It relies too much on the judgment of minor officials to enforce these regulations. In the world of patent law, where do the giants end and the little guys begin? The system risks becoming too arbitrary, with conflicting rulings being handed down by different patent clerks. It's much easier and more just to have a system that treats all applicants equally. Incidentally, this is probably why the patent office frequently grants 'obvious' patents - it's tough for patent officers to rule on these qualitative constraints. Government, or at least the U.S. Government, is inherently bad at qualitative evaluations.

That's why a better solution would be to change the quantitative aspects of patents - the easiest fix would be patent term restrictions. A patent issued on a software innovation shouldn't still be valid 12 years after it was issued. That only stifles development, and the purpose of the American patent system is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts". 5 years seems reasonable to me (although, of course, how long a patent should last is a qualitative judgment, but it would be made by our elected representatives in Congress, and would then be easily enforceable by minor officials without the need for qualitative judgments on their part).

By Jaybus on 8/9/2011 7:56:39 AM , Rating: 2
Of course they are bad at qualitative evaluations. Anyone capable of adequately evaluating the quality of a patent would not be working at the PTO for peanuts when they can earn far more at Apple, or just about anywhere else. The patent system thus degrades to one of litigation.

The patent is being used as only the tool to get placement on the court's docket. It is not worth the paper it is written on until it is tested in court. A judge is not necessarily, of course, any better at evaluating the technical merit of a patent, but presumably both parties will bring in expert witnesses who are. While this may indeed work, however inefficiently, to settle disputes between large corporations, it is hardly fair to the individual or small company who cannot afford the necessary legal representation. Patent trolls exist because the patent system treats individuals and small companies as second class citizens.

By lyeoh on 8/9/2011 9:49:02 AM , Rating: 2
To me what we should do is to award Prizes for Innovation instead, much like Nobel Prizes. Most people's hindsight is better than their foresight.

To qualify for the prize, inventors have to register their inventions and pay a registration fee that goes to the prize pool.

You could have one category of prize being awarded by "Experts in the Field", and another category awarded by members of the public (somewhat similar to the Hugo and Nebula prizes, except maybe we could allow a wider participation for members of the public?). Multiple prizes per category would be awarded. Prizes could be awarded every year.

Inventors could win a prize for something they did years or even decades ago.

So even if you are 30 years ahead of everyone and/or your stuff only gets declassified decades later, you can still win a prize.

In contrast patents don't reward the inventors who are really far ahead of their time. They instead reward people who somehow manage to sneak "Method of making omelettes by using contents of eggs while excluding shells and detritus" and "one-click" past overworked patent examiners deluged by similar garbage.

Also, punitive actions could be taken against people who falsely claim they were the first to invent something - at least based on the patent registration database.

What the "Patent Office people" would then do is: try to reduce dupes (you can't prevent dupes 100% but at least reduce them), organize and manage the data so that it is not too hard for people to find candidates for nomination - for instance you don't want to have people keep nominating an invention that has already won! That said an invention that has already won, could qualify for a "top winners amongst winners category".

The patent office workers could also help authoritatively link registered inventions with actual products out in the market.

