Oct 052008
UK based BBC News reports that some believe the Patent System has gone awry. Patents originally were intended to protect research performed by private entities by ensuring that royalties and licenses would be paid to the original researcher. Today, companies file “fortress patents” to prevent rival companies from researching similar techniques or technologies.
A reasonable solution might be to specify a limitation on filing patents. If a researcher does not self-produce the object of the patent and make it available, then perhaps the patent should be made to expire sooner?
It’s hard for me to speculate as I know virtually nothing about the system, other than the broadstrokes reason for the Patent office’s existance.
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I think you’re as expert as anyone who could be dug up– after all, didn’t you file U.S. Patent Number 1?