New Form for Patents

Do you want to build a better Mousetrap? If you do, you may not want to Patent the design. Such is the Message of this article in the NYTimes. The purported purpose of Patents–Incentive for intellectual development of new ideas–seems to be poorly served by the current functioning of the Patent system. The Costs of filing for a Patent most often exceed any benefit from the Patent itself, and employment of $400/hr lawyers in litigation of Patents could never possibly be Profitable. It becomes a disincentive to both Developers and Business utilizing such Patents to innovate.

We could enter a discussion as how Patents are not actually Property, but grants of monopoly to individual Concerns by Government; but that holds simple evident truth which needs no amplification. We should instead turn Our attention to Patent use as a form of Wage payment for new Innovations. How do you pay the Inventor? This area presents a wealth of alterable conditions, and is conducive to vast opportunities to improve performance of Patents, and the purpose for which they are issued.

My own take on the Issue is to mandate the fee system of a Patent, based upon the value of the Product idea; this specifically ordered to limit potential litigation with ease of determination, and limitation of the value of said Patent violation. Here is my Suggested alterations:

1) Users of a patented idea, Product, or Process for profitable gain must pay a set-Price for said use of the patent product, ranged between $250 to $10,000. The Patent-Holder need only prove its use by Another, with the initial use-Price determined by the Cost of the Research for the Patent idea, and the Productive gain to be made by the Patent use. Both are to be determined by the Patent Issuance Office at the Date of initial award of the Patent.

2) The Patent Office will also determine, at the time of Award of Patent, the numeral amount of usage of the Patent in salable Goods, before the initial Patent-Use payment has to be duplicated once more; this to be determined by the Cost of Development of the Patent, and the Profit of utilization of the Patent in salable Goods. This reduces litigation processes to simple determination if the Patent was used in the sale of Goods, and how often; with Patent royalties dictated by Government sanction uniformly.

3) Government should finally set the duration of the Patent, said Patents being limited only to individual Designers (Business cannot apply for Patents), with Patents to survive only the length of the Designers’ lifetimes. lgl