The patent that led to the telephone was approved in one month. The patent that led to the cell phone, as former White House economic advisor Austan Goolsbee recently observed, was approved in three years. Today, patents are held up for even longer -- and jobs and growth are held up with them. At this moment, more than 700,000 patents are caught in the backlog. Could one of those 700,000 new ideas be the next iPhone, the next breakthrough drug, the key to the next great American industry? We'll have to wait a long time to find out.
With millions of Americans still out of work, Democrats are working to advance a plan to rebuild American industry and create the solid, middle-class jobs our country needs. We call it the Make It In America plan: it's a legislative program to help American businesses stay here, grow here, build more products here, and sell them to the world. And a crucial part of that effort is ensuring we are the world's leader in innovation, so that we can outpace our competitors and stay at the job-creating forefront of the world economy. America is still the world's most innovative country -- but it's a sobering fact that Japan has recently overtaken us in patent applications. China, too, is on pace to overtake us soon. If we want to regain our innovation edge, we have to make it easier for American inventors to patent new products here and manufacture them here.
That's why it's so important that President Obama will today sign into law the America Invents Act, the most significant patent reform in half a century. It's also the first Make It In America bill to become law this year. If we want to put more Americans back to work, it can't be the last.
The America Invents Act creates a markedly more efficient patent system. It significantly reduces the backlog of ideas by hiring more patent examiners, modernizing technology in the Patent and Trademark Office, and speeding up the review process. It also institutes a new, "first-to-file" system for resolving disputes over priority. Such disputes have often been bogged down in costly, time-consuming legal cases. But this new legislation cuts down on that litigation by asking a simple question: who filed for a patent first? While the old system was weighted in favor of the largest corporations with the biggest legal teams and the most money to burn, the new system levels the playing field for small businesses and individual inventors, the kind of people who gave us revolutionary ideas like the personal computer.
Speeding up the patent process will get American ideas to market faster, and that unlocks tremendous opportunities for our economy to grow. But a wealth of other innovation-promoting ideas are also part of Democrats' Make It In America plan, and Congress should build on this success by passing more of the plan into law.
We should expand and make permanent the research and development tax credit, so that companies have stronger incentives to invest in new technologies here at home.
We should promote high-tech, advanced manufacturing by passing the JOBS Act, which builds job-training partnerships between colleges and advanced manufacturing businesses. These partnerships will help more Americans find job opportunities in fast-growing fields -- and help American businesses satisfy their demand for workers without looking overseas.
We should create a more efficient corporate tax code, with lower rates and fewer loopholes. That would help businesses make decisions based on their best economic judgment, not based on maximizing their tax deductions.
And we should keep pace with international competitors by creating a National Infrastructure Development Bank. It would leverage private investment in much-needed projects from energy delivery systems to broadband networks to modern ports, projects that would create jobs in the short term while laying the foundation for long-term growth.
There's no doubt that America still has the qualities that made its economy the strongest in the world -- the work ethic, the competitive drive, and the innovative spirit that have made this country great. I believe in the Make It In America plan because it's the best way of putting those qualities to work, so that we can out-build, out-educate, and out-innovate our competitors. Today's far-reaching patent reform is a big step in the right direction. And I can't wait to see the American innovations that come to market faster as a result.
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http://www.npr.org/2011/08/26/139924549/patent-wars-could-dull-techs-cutting-edge
Note that someone was even granted a patent on toast in 2001.
I do see areas where there is busy IP space, but we think there are many ways to work around problems. Also, just because there is a patent doesn't mean you can't license it.
Creating a smother and quicker process does not address the Patent problem IMO. Graham Bell was one of the Worlds greatest inventors BEFORE he found there was more money in having a Patent than INVENTING ANYTHING.
We all no this to be true. Reward the GENIUS and not the CLEVER and a better process for the CLEVER and not the GENIUS
Do you have any patents? I do.
Have you raised money for a startup based upon your patents? I have.
I'm doing it now.
Yes, I'm a little guy who then assembled a little team which raised a little money and buil a functional prototype that is creating a freaking HUGE NEW TECHNOLOGY that if you're a 1 in 3 chance of being needed in your lifetime to save your life.
You may see it featured in the next few months on TV news shows, not ads, but the press beating down our door due to our scientific publications and patent applications.
That's why small guys can be the big guys
The iPhone is like Lady Gaga, it gets a lot of attention but at the end of the day it's just another attractive time waster. (with minor apologies to my former Apple coworkers)
I've done it several times. I've also sat in many courtrooms during patent litigation and working with expert witnesses to clarify the points for summary judgment motion or long term litigation where the parties mutually create a bonfire that uses lawyers to throw $5-10 million to stoke the flames of litigation over 4-5 years.
I can flip your argument 180 degrees and say "What prevents US companies from hiring lots of engineers...." which is what we have done here as well.
I had a discussion yesterday with a patent litigator about this topic and several patentable technologies our team is developing. At the end of the day it will little change what we've been doing for several decades. There will be greater parallel between US and EU patent law. But in Europe we deal with Civil Law no Common Law.
We will find that patent mills attend scientific conferences and race out to file a patent. We will then discover a few years later that their patent has been issued with no supporting understanding of the science, technology or innovation. At which point we can respond to their attorney with a big raise middle finger (my favorite) or we can pay to be mugged again and again.
"It really doesn't create jobs for anybody except maybe patent lawyers," says James Besson, a lecturer at Boston University School of Law and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center on Internet and Society.
Patents and intellectual property (IP) protection is a key American value going back to Ben Franklin. IP protection was a fundamental part of the US constitution enabling the little guy to be on par with the big guy.
The US Constitution also allowed slavery but we fixed it. We soon will with this concept of IP as well.
Take a look at Penn Gillet's patent. All he did was move a jet in a hot tub to a new location in the tub so that it was easier for it to be used in a way it has being used since jets were first put in hot tubs. Wow, obviously.
Wonder if I can get a patent on the idea of marketing black clothing to Goth kids?
Marketing is not patentable. However, you can file trademarks or copyrights which are other forms of intellectual property that could apply to Goth clothing.
First to file simply gets you to the head of the line. Do you have enablement? (does it work?) can you demonstrate how to make it work? What about composition of matter - is yours the same as mine?
There are actually bipartisan support from people on both sides for this. It has its drawbacks, but overall it can be made to work.