

Senate’s Patent Act is a Big Win for Startups - brokentone
http://engine.is/issues/ip/senates-patent-act-is-a-big-win-for-startups/5303

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jimmydddd
For those who want to improve patent quality, let the patent office keep its
funds so it can invest in updated technology and hiring and training patent
examiners. Currently, those applying for patents pay fees to the patent
office, but congress takes most of the money for other stuff (e.g., pet
projects in their districts). Let the patent office keep its funds paid for by
patent applicants, so they can be re-invested in the system.

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omellet
That would create a corrupting incentive for the USPTO to encourage and accept
more patent filings, which is the opposite of what they should be doing.

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jimmydddd
@omellet You make an interesting point. The patent office doesn't really
encourage the filing of patent applications though. Instead, it examines
patent applications after they are filed.

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wavefunction
Their point is that the Patent Office would have a "perverse incentive" to
encourage/increase the number of filings and the numbers of patents it grants
if the Office were allowed to keep the proceeds raised from fees, which you
correctly point out is not the case right now.

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jimmydddd
@wavefunction. I see their point, but I don't quite follow their logic. I
don't think the patent office has much control over how many people file
patent applications, they just examine them once they are filed. For example,
the patent office doesn't advertise during the superbowl. If they have less
resources to examine the filed patent applications, then they will not be able
to examine them as effectively.

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jgmmo
It's marginally better for startups. Something that would be a big-win is the
nullification of the entire idea of software patents.

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jimmydddd
@jgmmo You raise an interesting question about software patents. Many people
think that physical hardware devices, like an improved portable GPS device for
my car, or a police radar gun, should be patent eligible. Many of those same
people think that an app that performs the same functions in a mobile device
should not be patent eligible. It could be argued, however, that in these
cases, the hardware and software are really implementations of the same
"invention."

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jgmmo
I only stopped at software due to the audience. I personally am not sure I
believe the idea of intellectual property is defensible, at all.

It's hard for me to imagine why someone, somewhere, should be allowed to
dictate how I am or am not allowed to use my resources just because 'they
thought of it first'. Especially since I am of the belief that there is no
original thought.

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot
of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a
turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making
new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored
glass that have been in use through all the ages.” ― Mark Twain

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JoeAltmaier
Its entirely to encourage innovation. A commerce thing. If you improve a pump,
and try to sell it, and BigPumpsCo instantly copies the better design, then
what motivation to make better pumps?

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jgmmo
The term for a patent is 20 years, according to my limited understanding.
That's an enormous amount of time to be able to legally have a monopoly on
something like 'playing video on the internet', 'in-app purchasing', etc.

Do you think when a company owns a process like that, for 20 years, that it
improves innovation?

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jokoon
I'll never understand how low quality patents even pass, and how they can be
valid in court.

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elihu
I think part of the bad patent problem is that at certain points in time the
patent office's backlog of unexamined patents had gotten so long they had to
relax their review standards somewhat just because they didn't have enough
reviewers for the volume of patents they needed to review.

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jimmydddd
@elihu Many people would agree with that point.

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dang
Url changed from [http://avc.com/2015/05/the-patent-
act/](http://avc.com/2015/05/the-patent-act/), which points to this.

