A Single International New Patent System Needed

[Arthur Hanson]

A single, fair international patent system that is online, searchable and transparent is sorely needed to resolve the IP mess that is degenerating by the day into a full employment system for a growing group of engineers, scientists and above all lawyers. A fully online patent system could speed progress by avoiding duplication of effort, making new technology more widely available, create new business models and platforms to market and implement new processes and technologies.

This would require a major international effort first to determine what could be patented, how long different classes of patents should be and avoid conflicting patents. It would also need to open new patent classes in areas we haven't even considered or are not widely recognized like platforms and business processes and if they should even be allowed intellectual property protection. These issues need to be worked on and implemented as soon as possible with the literal explosion on new technologies and processes coming on at an ever increasing rate that is only getting faster, enabled by the rapid growth of technology and the number of people using it around the world.

We have truly entered a world where IP is the new gold and must come to some kind of international agreement on how it is to be created, handled, distributed and marketed. The systems we have now are sadly outdated, too territorial, political and totally inadequate for the ever faster moving and more connected world we live in. If we don't deal with this shortly, the problems will only get more severe and broader based and it's not even inconceivable that IP problems could actually lead to real physical wars as the importance and value is increasing at an ever accelerating rate. Right now we are living in the stone age of handling IP and it needs to change. This needs to be handled on an international scale with wisdom and knowledge for it may become ever more important as our knowledge increases and it's not inconceivable that many of the platforms we are creating could become more powerful than many countries and some may already be there as we have seen social media play a role already in toppling more than one country.

With power goes responsibility and the tech sector is becoming more powerful every day with the "Great Acceleration".

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[IanD]

The US patent system is like the US healthcare system -- expensive and not working properly. The searching is a joke, the approach is pretty much to grant any old rubbish and let the lawyers fight it out afterwards. I hate to point it out but -- like healthcare -- places outside the US do exist, and some of them (e.g. Europe) have much more effective patent systems than the US, with more rigorous searches and less of a tendency to grant terrible patents, and courts who aren't as easily hoodwinked into believing stupid infringement claims from patent trolls, and legal systems where it doesn't cost millions of dollars to fight them -- or at least, not as many...

They're still not perfect and undoubtedly a better worldwide patent system would be an improvement, but these US problems (patents and healthcare) are pretty much down to the US itself, so I wouldn't expect the other 96% of people around the world to have such a doom-and-gloom view as Arthur ;-)

 

[Arthur Hanson]

Patent protection in much of the world is a joke in the far east, Asia, Africa, South America and many other areas. I can't speak to Europe, but they sound like the rare exception. So I still feel the situation around the world is but one of the serious impediments holding back the speed of progress substantially. We need a world wide system with many reforms or the problem will only get worse.

 

[Daniel Payne]

A step was taken back in 1970 with the Patent Cooperation Treaty:

Patent Cooperation Treaty - Wikipedia

Because of nation-state sovereignty, we have to live with multiple patent systems per nation, unless you really want a new, one-world order.

 

[Arthur Hanson]

Dan, thanks for the information on PCT, it sounds like an expensive, time and money consuming mess. We truly need a truly international patent system that will benefit all and get out of the stone age ways IP is currently handled. It just goes to show how far mankind still has to go to cooperate for the benefit of all concerned.

 

[Tanj]

Actually the PCT is far less trouble to deal with than the US PTO. The main problem with it is a few countries it does not cover - in our business Taiwan stands out as significant. You still need to make specific applications to countries where you want coverage but apart from Taiwan the PCT gives you time to organize that and for the dust to settle so you can decide if you still believe in your patent and want to spend more money on it.

I'm surprised you do not seem to have gone through this process. One of the great delights is the whole new class of spam and spearfishing you will get from places that claim fees for "registering" or other services.

 

[IanD]

Patent protection in much of the world is a joke in the far east, Asia, Africa, South America and many other areas. I can't speak to Europe, but they sound like the rare exception. So I still feel the situation around the world is but one of the serious impediments holding back the speed of progress substantially. We need a world wide system with many reforms or the problem will only get worse.

I think you're confusing the patent system itself with the legal system used for prosecuting/defending infringements. In many of these countries the legal system (including patent enforcement/infringement) is basically corrupt, to the benefit of whoever has the deepest pockets -- no amount of tweaking the patent system itself will change this. The USA isn't exactly immune to such charges either, see East Texas.

A better worldwide patent system would undoubtedly be better than the mess we've got now, but it wouldn't fix the IP theft/infringement problem which is down to the local legal systems, which in the end means governments. If you've got a realistic suggestion on how to stamp out government corruption worldwide, I'd love to hear it ;-)

 

[Arthur Hanson]

I agree with you and what I meant that laws can become a joke in and of themselves or by how they are enforced, not enforced or executed. The whole world IP theft protection system has become an expensive, time consuming joke that has created serious problems that will only get worse as compounding of the ways of creating IP only accelerates the problems. Fair and efficient handling of IP world wide already is a major issue and we need new and innovative ways to handle it so as to increase the generation of IP since we will need all the creativity we can get to keep the world from becoming a hell hole, which it could easily degenerate into since while generating ways to improve the world at a dramatic rate, the same goes for ways to destroy it, either deliberately or by accident. We only have one environment and it must be protected.

More and more of the world economy is IP and most people don't realize IP is now the most important part of the world economy and growing at an accelerating clip.

Comments, thoughts, theories on this aspect solicited and appreciated