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The most important news stories are sometimes the least-covered
I just now came across this blog entry, talking about the fact that the Supreme Court is weighing a patent case with serious ramifications today. Apparently, it's being used as a test case for the question of what is "obvious", and they're seriously examining whether the current standards for patents (which have led to the enormous slew of patents in the past couple of decades) are really appropriate.
Neat stuff, and terribly, terribly relevant to the tech industry. For all the concerns that it will cause some chaos (which are probably true), I dearly hope that they wrestle with the problem seriously enough to come up with a better standard. We'll see what happens...
Neat stuff, and terribly, terribly relevant to the tech industry. For all the concerns that it will cause some chaos (which are probably true), I dearly hope that they wrestle with the problem seriously enough to come up with a better standard. We'll see what happens...
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For the man on the street, who never directly interacts with patent law, it is all stuff that happens "behind the curtain" - a possible reshuffling on who has the rights to what, and maybe a resulting change of prices some years from now as things get sorted out. Not really a big deal.
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Of course, that may all be lost under the cost of retesting patents to see if they meet more stringent guidelines, or the legal fees around challenging patents.
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Of course, that's assuming that stricter standards do not, in fact, impede innovation, as the hardcore patent absolutists claim they would. I personally believe that they probably wouldn't, but it remains to be tested...
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You're talking about a potential one-off fee for every patent filed in the last 20 years. Even if it only applies to a fraction of the total number of patents filed, the cumulative effect is likely to be considerable.
And that's not considering the fact that the patent office and courts are already overburdened - working through the tangle of change will be a major undertaking, with major costs to the nation. If that cost isn't paid, the system may slow to a crawl, and time is money.
Which is not to say it shouldn't be done. Any improvement in infrastructure has a cost. But we would be wise to not be dismissive of the effects, either.
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Also, keep in mind that many patents are simply trash at this point -- filed, but really never used and no one cares enough to defend tham now.
Yes, the cost is considerable -- no question about that. *How* considerable would depend on what they decided. IMO, it's probably worth it, but I am admittedly biased -- I dislike the patent regime enough that I would probably be happier if the whole edifice simply crumbled, rather than what we have now...
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http://syndicated.livejournal.com/scotusblog/758228.html
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