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What's Patentable?

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I've been having conversations lately about what's wrong with the patent system and how to fix it. Mostly, I've found people who know even less than me who have a fully formed opinion. It seems there is no correlation between knowledge and opinion-making.

Something is obviously broken with the patent system. Long delays in getting applications approved, broad patents that cover way more than they should, and patents that are completely obvious are just part of the problem. Technology is moving too fast for the system. What is completely new and innovative one year is predictable, obvious technology the next.

Case in point: Microsoft has been taking a lot of heat for a patent that allows people to click a hyperlink while watching TV, pausing the TV so that the viewer can brose the web. This patent seems completely trivial and obvious, until you consider that the application was filed in 1991!

Now it's obvious today, sure. But back in 1991? Sounds to me like a very novel and non-obvious invention. A 20-year right to hold that technology would expire in another few years. No harm done to society, and the system worked the way it should.

But here's the kicker: the patent has just NOW come out of dispute! It took 14 years for the patent office and the lawyers to hammer out whether it was worth a patent or not. Does that mean there is only about 5 years left on the IP (Intellectual Property) ownership? Heck no! The 20-year clock starts this month. That means Microsoft can try to lay claim to click-and-pause TV until the year 2026.

This situation is obviously untenable and something needs to be done. I'm open to suggestions. There are, I think, some ground definitions to remember:

To me there are three vastly different concepts at work here: providing IP value (or teaching society), providing real value (economic), and popularity.

These concepts do not necessarily happen all at the same time. One person may discover or invent a valuable idea yet not have the wherewithal to start/run a business. Another may provide very popular advice and entertainment, yet not actually contribute anything worthwhile. Still a third may sell nothing of novelty or uniqueness, yet do so in a way that provides economic value to the consumer.

We reward the popular person with magazine sales, book sales, tours, etc. We reward the economic value-added person with economic benefits provided by the market. For the inventor? He owns the invention and licenses it out, presumably to people from the other two categories.

I think its great when 2 or more of these value attributes are present at the same time – Torvald (the guy who helped invent Linux) provided a popular idea with real economic benefit to society. Berners-Lee (the guy who helped invent the internet) provided immense economic value as well – although I would consider his contributions of anonymous economic benefit and not true IP, but I haven’t read his book.

Opinions are like you-know-whats, everybody's got one. A little bit of level-setting and understanding might help the discussion move forward.

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This page contains a single entry by DanielBMarkham published on December 21, 2005 3:51 PM.

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