FTC Says It's Time To Reform Patent System
from the well,-it's-about-time dept
While plenty of folks in the tech world have been screaming at the top of our lungs on this topic for a long, long time, we've mostly been ignored. Now, however, even the FTC is saying that our current patent system has some serious problems, and are suggesting that patents be harder to get, and easier to challenge. They've put out a report saying that too many bad patents are being issued and are doing much more to harm innovation than to encourage it. The USPTO says they're still reading the report. The big stumbling block in all of this, of course, is funding. The PTO would need additional funding from Congress, and despite all their worries about intellectual property when it comes to music, most politicians don't really care about patent issues.
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Although I agree that patenst should be given more scrutiny, I also feel that they need to be less expensive. For a regular person to file and protect a patent, it can cost thousands of dollars right now ($8,000 by one estimation).
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Getting the attention of Congress
So, let's apply for (and get) some business process patents on political fundraising, campaign planning/logistics, etc. and sue them the next time they try running for office. I would think that might cut through the noise...
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My personal brainstorm would be to charge some sort of tax on patent royalty payments which goes to fund the USPTO.
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I think it would be funny to attempt to patent the process of patenting patents and sue the uspto when they issue it. Heh Heh...
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hmmm.
I think the answer is to keep the patenting process the same as it is now, but make it a lot easier to challenge and invalidate patents as the articles states.... And make the "challenge" fees go to the USPTO instead of random lawyers.
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