The other day, I was discussing the challenges with patent law in the computer programming and software sector. My acquaintance, Troy LaClaire a fellow think tanker type were contemplating a new device for computer gaming and personal tech, which would require some rather unique coding and software to do something which has not been done yet, to our knowledge anyway. Well it turns out that Sony already has some patents, 8-years old for the application of video games, but apparently the patent was vaguely worded and could be interpreted as any computer device.
Yes, they definitely locked that one down tight and of course any large corporation in that sector would have done the same, well any smart company. Troy stated; "and yet it seems that they haven't really done anything with it and one reason why I think we need more patent limitations, as some people would be to afraid to proceed on such a project as they would be to worried about violating patents already in place."
Indeed, now that is a really good point, and yet, I guess I have many mixed emotions on the whole US patent and trademark office for the same reasons. Sometimes it helps industry to spend the money in research and development knowing that they have a patent they will recoup their money, and other times it just prevents innovation from moving forward, and prevents very decent technologies from coming to market. And all these lawsuits over patents are just a nightmare, and all those court awards do nothing but raise the price for consumers, often needlessly.
Troy also reminded me that our patent laws definitely have their benefits; in that companies can review patents someone else owns, and then contact that person on licensing the rights to the patent, without the designer risking losing the idea to someone else. However it has become a method for companies to prevent others from working on similar things, by patenting things that they may never produce.
Okay so, that is very true, and yes, sometimes our free-market loses, consumer loses, and humanity loses, which is not so good. Now then could our concept really make it in the real world, in that free market system, I often speak so highly about? We must also understand as Troy noted to me in our conversation that he doesn't see the overall system changing anytime soon, as there were just recently a number of changes, and even those were not huge changes although they will affect many companies with large patent portfolios, but as Troy says "so we must learn to work within the system and figure out how to use it for our own needs for the current time."
We also agreed as you perhaps do if you are in the software sector, that for these reasons, someday, I think we need to redo the patent system, and especially put in a limit on patents. Such a limit should allow for a longer patent period for something that is actually in production, but on the flip side have early expiration for things that are not being produced, especially software systems tech and consumer electronics.
Lastly, Troy brought up another decent point here; the main problem with software, is for a specific action there may only be so many different ways you can do something. Once all of these are patented, the small developer who may have a new product cannot release it because some small piece may violate a patent/copyright.
And so if a small developer doesn't do it, and a big corporation decides not to, then there is a chance that nothing gets done, thus, nothing gets created. See that point?
Patent Riches Through Licensing New Simplified Process of Filing of PCT National Phase Applications in India Patenting Homeopathic Medicines What Happens After You File A Patent Application? What to Do With Your Great Idea - Should You Trademark, Copyright or Patent?
0 comments:
Post a Comment