MEMES
Patents debunked
Although your local Patent Office may try to persuade you otherwise, patents are not a cast-iron guarantee of innovation. They mainly rely on two things . . .
Firstly, luck. The Patent Office may grant you a patent, but, contrary to most people’s expectations, they give absolutely no guarantee whatever that the patent is, or is going to remain, valid. They do a ‘search’ to see if there’s been any obviously similar idea published before, but they are very careful to point out that it’s not an *exhaustive search*. If someone shows up with proof that the invention, or something substantially similar, had actually existed before, your patent, and all associated investments, gets instantly blown out of the water.
Secondly, how much cash have you got ? If a large corporation or mega-rich individual decides to challenge you in court, they will almost certainly win unless you’ve got ‘bigger lawyers’ than they have. The better the idea is, the more likely it is that this will happen. If MegaCorp decides they’d quite like to manufacture your invention, but don’t fancy paying you any royalties, it’s worth their while throwing a few hundred thousand dollars at the problem in court first, to see if they can bust the patent. Conversely, if a small enterprise in China decides to start manufacturing your precious product without paying you, what, in a practical sense, are you going to do about it ? Unless you have the help of a firm of expert patent lawyers with a global reach, you’re lost.
Welcome to the flaky nether-world of patents.
Patents are very expensive – one which covers the EU, US, Japan and other major markets is going to set you back hundreds of thousands of dollars - and, it will take up to ten years to implement. All this cash goes to the Patent Offices and attorneys. Little wonder that they will often take your money and issue a patent for some half-baked idea which they might suspect has no hope whatever in the real world.
Patent Offices around the globe are always looking for new markets to exploit. And now they have sniffed-out a huge new one. So-called ‘Computer Implemented Inventions’ The similarly flaky nether-world of software. Put the two together and you have something with all the substance and logic of a dust-devil.
Many people have pointed out that the granting of a patent to a piece of software, is much like granting a patent to a mathematical formula. If the idea had been around in ancient Greece, Pythagoras could have made a fortune.
To sum up. For very large corporations with extensive budgets and in-house legal teams, it makes sense to patent the company’s ideas. If no-one challenges the invention, they can make a fortune for fifty years or so. The patent, in effect, is like a very large, publicly displayed, banner which reads - ‘This is our idea ( probably ), and it’s going to cost you a lot of time and trouble to wrestle us for it …’
For
small companies and individuals without the backing of a very affluent
sponsor – well – good
luck.
* * *
It's worth noting that an invention doesn't actually have to work to be patentable . . . In fact, it can even 'defy the laws of physics' as they are currently understood.
Think we're exaggerating ?
See this patent, issued Nov 1st 2005
