The patent system today is a joke. Its badly broken, and we suffer for it. Both in our work as IxDs and as private consumers. The most ridiculous and overly broad patents are granted left and right for claims that are obviously bogus to anyone with any domain knowledge. Companies are "gaming the system" as long as the Patent Offices grants monopoly rents to patent holders that have not, in the end, invented a novel product.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Britain's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the European Patent Office has an initiative to help this sad situation. Well worth checking out for anyone interested: http://dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/index.php (Now, for the record: I'm strongly in favor of protecting intellectual property. Had my own IP been possible to protect, I would probably been a rich man today.) Frankly, I think IxDA should take a stand on this issue, but that may be wishful thinking. Most of us work at companies that want to, or does exploit the system. Don't bite the hand that feeds you, etc. >From the >Economist<http://www.economist.com/search/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=9719020> : PATENT examiners, who scrutinise applications for patents and determine whether they ought to be granted or not, are used to poring over diagrams of complicated contraptions. But now the patent system itself, just as complex in its own way, is under increasing scrutiny. The number of applications has soared in recent years, but patent offices have been unable to keep up—resulting in huge backlogs and lengthy delays. Standards have slipped and in America the number of lawsuits over contested patents has shot up (see chart). In an attempt to fix these problems, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Britain's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the European Patent Office are evaluating a radical change: opening the process up to internet-based collaboration. The scheme, known as "Peer to Patent", was created by Beth Simone Noveck, a professor at New York Law School. It applies an unusual form of peer review to a process which traditionally involves only a patent applicant and an examiner. Anybody who is interested may comment on a patent application via the internet. The scheme was launched as a one-year pilot programme in America on June 15th. Sean Dennehey of Britain's IPO, who sits on the project's advisory board, says his organisation will follow suit by the end of the year. The project is being supported by big technology firms including IBM, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. An efficient patent system is essential for the promotion of innovation. Patents give inventors a temporary monopoly on a new idea in return for disclosing how it works, so that others can subsequently build upon it. But if a patent is granted for something that is not novel (people are already doing it), or is obvious (any Tom, Dick, or Harry in the field could think it up), it can hamper innovation by turning a widely used invention or process into one person's monopoly. The trouble is that examiners cannot always tell when a patent is unwarranted. -- Morten Hjerde http://sender11.typepad.com ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] List Guidelines ............ http://beta.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://beta.ixda.org/help Unsubscribe ................ http://beta.ixda.org/unsubscribe Questions .................. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home ....................... http://beta.ixda.org
