There are a lot of "shoulds" in this comment. I'm no fan of the patent protection racket we have going, but what you lay out would be infinitely worse. All those "shoulds" are decisions that would be made by beurocrats with little real understanding (who really knows whether the $9000 device can really be substituted with an iPad and app?).
Patent reform is tough. The obvious one (no pun intended) is that patents really should be non-obvious. Beyond that, I vacillate between killing them and severely neutering them. I think they could have some value if they protected inventions that were two or more steps ahead of the current technology. Being able to patent the place everybody would put their next foot is inane.
i think the simplest and easiest solution to patent reform would be to just scale back the term. 20 years is garbage, i'd say that patents should be granted for a maximum of four years. their purpose is to give innovators a chance to use their invention to build a business, and if you can't build a business in four years you aren't going to. in a fast moving industry like software, the term should be more like 6mo - 1yr.
also, it'd be great to kill licensing of patents. it would turn patents from an IP marketplace to a use-it-or-lose-it incentive for inventors.
>what you lay out would be infinitely worse. All those "shoulds" are decisions that would be made by beurocrats with little real understanding (who really knows whether the $9000 device can really be substituted with an iPad and app?).
I can't say that I have all the answers, but neither are you providing any alternatives.
Can you make a suggestion as to how to prevent patents (or for that matter other IP protections) from being used as a tool to prevent innovation as opposed to promote it, as it was intended?
Patent reform is tough. The obvious one (no pun intended) is that patents really should be non-obvious. Beyond that, I vacillate between killing them and severely neutering them. I think they could have some value if they protected inventions that were two or more steps ahead of the current technology. Being able to patent the place everybody would put their next foot is inane.