Monday, April 21, 2008

Patent Office Head Admits Problems

Well, it is a good thing that the head of the US Patent Office acknowledges that the patent system is broken.

Tons of junk patents are overwhelming the patent system, and then people with crappy patents are flooding the court system by suing people who actually invent stuff.

For me, the best commentary on this comes from this guy, who argues that Mr. Dudas is way late on figuring this out, and that the changes Mr. Dudas proposes will make the system worse, not better.

The same blogger has a great series of essays on the history of "intellectual property", exploring the origins of copyright and patents in America, and arguing that we have WAY too much intellectual property now.

I was surprised to learn that in patents, as in copyright, we have a system which actually stifles creativity rather than inspiring it. The system add protection of inventions after lots of inventions are ALREADY designed. Retroactive copyright or patents give no incentive to invent new stuff: they just give more money to large corporations.

Actual creativity should be rewarded. But copyright and patents should expire after20 years. And patents shouldn't be given for how you swing on a tire, or how you wait in line.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think both the patent system and government in general is all a "conspiracy" created by lawyers. A broken patent system and ambiguous laws is key to an endless wealth of business.

Seriuosly though, I wonder if it possible to rewrite the rules to leave less room for anyone with enough money to squeeze their stupid patent through.