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Innovation is dead in our country. This is a fairly bold statement and was made to catch your attention. Innovation is not completely dead, but right now it is very expensive and frustrating. The main reason for the high cost and frustration level is the current patent system and all of these patent lawsuits flying around.
The spirit of a patent is to protect the individual or company who came up with a novel idea from other parties taking it and making their own product. In theory this helps by giving the inventor a leg up on their competition to get their product to market and capitalize on their research and development. Taken this way, I whole-heartedly approve. When I worked at a smaller company these patents were vital to our success in getting our technology developed and out the door.
In recent years patents have devolved into merely a weapon used in the corporate trenches. What companies are doing is they are buying up large numbers of patents so that they can take other companies to court and make money off of them. In fact, there have been companies formed for the sole purpose of suing other companies over patent rights (these are colloquially called Patent Trolls).
This article on Ars Technica (Study: patent trolls have cost innovators half a trillion dollars) shows how these lawsuits discourage people from innovating. If you come up with a novel idea and try to make a product out of it, chances are you are infringing on an existing patent. If this is the case, you are about to be subject to substantial legal fees as well as paying the owner of the patent royalties or licencing fees.
These costs are often too much for smaller companies and individuals to bear so they cannot afford to come up with new ideas. As for larger companies, that is how the game is played now. Instead of settling amongst themselves, they merely find other patents to buy so they can just sue back. Thus they create a legal feedback loop that keeps out the smaller or newer players in the game.
I realize that the way our patent system is structured makes sense in protecting the patent owners’ rights, but it is being misused and is becoming exclusive to large corporations. I do not think the system needs drastic changes, perhaps small ones. What I would like to see is these big corporations getting together to settle their differences (I suspect their lawsuits would end up mostly canceling each other out) and strive to work with smaller entities more closely to help foster new ideas and innovation in technology.
blog comments powered by DisqusThe spirit of a patent is to protect the individual or company who came up with a novel idea from other parties taking it and making their own product. In theory this helps by giving the inventor a leg up on their competition to get their product to market and capitalize on their research and development. Taken this way, I whole-heartedly approve. When I worked at a smaller company these patents were vital to our success in getting our technology developed and out the door.
In recent years patents have devolved into merely a weapon used in the corporate trenches. What companies are doing is they are buying up large numbers of patents so that they can take other companies to court and make money off of them. In fact, there have been companies formed for the sole purpose of suing other companies over patent rights (these are colloquially called Patent Trolls).
This article on Ars Technica (Study: patent trolls have cost innovators half a trillion dollars) shows how these lawsuits discourage people from innovating. If you come up with a novel idea and try to make a product out of it, chances are you are infringing on an existing patent. If this is the case, you are about to be subject to substantial legal fees as well as paying the owner of the patent royalties or licencing fees.
These costs are often too much for smaller companies and individuals to bear so they cannot afford to come up with new ideas. As for larger companies, that is how the game is played now. Instead of settling amongst themselves, they merely find other patents to buy so they can just sue back. Thus they create a legal feedback loop that keeps out the smaller or newer players in the game.
I realize that the way our patent system is structured makes sense in protecting the patent owners’ rights, but it is being misused and is becoming exclusive to large corporations. I do not think the system needs drastic changes, perhaps small ones. What I would like to see is these big corporations getting together to settle their differences (I suspect their lawsuits would end up mostly canceling each other out) and strive to work with smaller entities more closely to help foster new ideas and innovation in technology.
