> -----Original Message----- > From: Erik Hofman > Sent: 16 February 2004 9:18 am > To: FlightGear developers discussions > Subject: Re: Patents [OT] (Was: RE: [Flightgear-devel] XML SCripting) > > > Richard Bytheway wrote: > > > There was a comment on the /. discussion on this subject > that the examiners have a quota of patents applications to > process each week, so there is little incentive to dig too > deep. I hope this is not the case, but it might be. > > > Ok. But since the patent request was filed in 2001 and is granted in > 2004 it looks like they get overwhelmed with patent requests. I don't > think this is US specific and therefore the patent office is > becoming a > bingo office for the rich. > > For me this means patents have had their time and should be abandoned > from now on. > > Erik >
My view on this is complex. I work for a small company, competing world wide with some large players. If we can invent something (hardware or software) which gives the company an advantage, then patenting it gives us a stronger position in our market place. OTOH, I feel that patents are granted for trivial, obvious and non-novel "inventions" (this XML one, and the Amazon 1-click for instance) more and more frequently. It is not cheap to submit a patent, and whilst some of the money goes to people to write the words, a fair chunk goes to the patent office to administer it. And they get maintenance fees for granted patents. Maybe the solution is to make patent examining more rewarding (better paid) to get a greater number of more suitable people filtering the crud that gets through. I think I will stop now, before I get into a fully fledged rant. Richard _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
