Patents Become A Literal 'Get Out Of Jail Early' Card For Chinese Prisoners
from the gaming-the-system dept
We’ve written before about China’s keenness to boost the number of patents granted — without worrying too much about their quality. The New York Times reports on a rather unusual scheme for adding to the country’s patent pile:
Under Chinese law, prisoners who have come up with useful new technologies can be eligible for sentence reductions.
This is no mere theoretical option: some prisoners have already benefited from the system.
Mr. Nan, who was given a 10-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption and match fixing in 2012, saw a court take one year off his sentence in December for good behavior, including writing science fiction and receiving four patents, China Daily reported. His inventions included a device for controlling desktop monitors, a mobile phone stand and two soccer-related items: a portable goal and a tool for measuring shot accuracy, China Daily said.
The Chinese newspaper that broke the story about prisoners using patents to reduce their sentences, Beijing Youth Daily, also found services that claimed they could provide patents to be used in this way:
One office in Shaanxi Province said it could provide a simple patent for 6,800 renminbi, or about $1,100, with prices rising to nearly $10,000 for more complex patents.
The good news is that if the people running these services are ever caught and sent to prison for trying to game the system, at least they know a good way of getting out early.
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Filed Under: china, jail, jail terms, patents
Comments on “Patents Become A Literal 'Get Out Of Jail Early' Card For Chinese Prisoners”
Looks like the next world war will be fought over who owns the patent to getting ones way by fighting a war.
(I just hope I haven’t given someone an idea for a process patent.)
Hmm… patents make a good way to shoot yourself in the foot.
As we are moving forward in time where information is so readily available and it is becoming more and more realistic for machines to do work, it is becoming clear that humans will not have to work very hard to sustain themselves.
This scares the living shit out of the power brokers because our current economy of controlling consumption is how they retain their power. Once everyone can literally say… naff off suckers I don’t need you cause I can manufacture my own materials and food and protect myself, then all hell will break loose!
Humans themselves will become the pre-dominant market, sadly this was never squashed as the world still has a lot of slavery. At the end of the day, economics have always been about ruling over someone, sometimes for good, but most of the time for evil.
Patents from prison?
I didn’t know you could patent shanks and cake bombs.
Hmmm, reminds me of a commercial…
We Must Not Allow A Patent Gap!
This is why America needs STRONGER PATENT LAWS NOW, BEFORE ITS TO LATE!!! We need to URGENTLY set up a PATENT MANHATAN PROJECT!!!! Otherwise those Chinese will end up OWNING ALL THE INTELECTUAL PROPERTY!!!!!!
In Communist China, criminals are patent holders!