Comment Re:Who to support? (Score 1) 283
1. Patents last too long. This is a general problem with IP law these days
Who is to say how long is too long? Is it too long for the software industry, which is barely even comparable to what it was two decades ago? Probably. Is it too long for the drug industry, in which the development of drugs coming to market now may have been ongoing for the last two decades? Maybe not (healthcare effects notwithstanding). The patent system needs to be revised so that it reflects a solution to the problem: it has drifted from its goal of making innovation profitable and protecting the investment and ideas of innovators. Perhaps different patents for different classes of IP?
2. Patents are too easy to get.
I suggest trying it sometime. It isn't that easy after all. Moreover, it's pretty expensive to get a patent on anything non-trivial. Make it harder, and you make it more expensive still, which means individual garage inventors are not going to be protecting themselves, which doesn't seem like much of an idea either. After all, your local neighborhood global corporation doesn't care if a patent costs it $15,000 or $150,000.
I don't dispute that things are broken, but there's no easy fix, either.
-db
Who is to say how long is too long? Is it too long for the software industry, which is barely even comparable to what it was two decades ago? Probably. Is it too long for the drug industry, in which the development of drugs coming to market now may have been ongoing for the last two decades? Maybe not (healthcare effects notwithstanding). The patent system needs to be revised so that it reflects a solution to the problem: it has drifted from its goal of making innovation profitable and protecting the investment and ideas of innovators. Perhaps different patents for different classes of IP?
2. Patents are too easy to get.
I suggest trying it sometime. It isn't that easy after all. Moreover, it's pretty expensive to get a patent on anything non-trivial. Make it harder, and you make it more expensive still, which means individual garage inventors are not going to be protecting themselves, which doesn't seem like much of an idea either. After all, your local neighborhood global corporation doesn't care if a patent costs it $15,000 or $150,000.
I don't dispute that things are broken, but there's no easy fix, either.
-db
