505 My Patent on Pessimism << Prev Next >>
by: ColonelZen	IP: 226.26	rated: 0-0	posted: 2007-10-13 16:05:16
IR IV SCOX 46767 by wallybass   >>>   In any case, some dialogue on this topic needs to emerge *somewhere*, and some ideas as to appropriate criteria and associated rationals need to be generated. The problem is rapidly getting out of control, IMO.   <<<     Excuse my pessimism but I've seen too much to be pessimistic about.     Dialogue "needs" to emerge if and only if there is some chance of congressional action on the consensus.     The patent system as it is "feeds" lawyers, patent trolls, accountants (creating wealth out of "nothing"), and at best only a very few very large companies who actually do something with "their" IP - smaller companies can't afford the resources to file dozens or hundreds of patents to protect "their" ideas and methods.     The patent system you (and I) would prefer would benefit doers and makers.     Who controls this country doer's and makers, or lawyers and spread-sheet financiers? (hint the company where I work was a small profitable small co ... but bought out by a NY venture capital firm underwritten by a foreign bank in less than a year after I started there - profitable "doers and makers" are bought out to become lines on a spreadsheet asap).     I foresee the US becoming a technological backwater (patents are only part of the problem). Twenty years ago I started noticing that many gadgets were made available in Japan before they were available in the US. In the last couple years I've noticed the same thing about Europe. A decade ago I was astonished by the "technology" in roadside billboards in Canada - remember I live in the East Coast megopolis outside Philadelphia. And these are just "surface" phenomena.     Linux will *probably* prevail in the next few years, but I won't be surprised if I need to move out of the US by the time I retire if I want to be able to publish any toys I write. Expect professonal licensing boards and required licenses to start being required by various states for anyone proffering their services as a programmer - that will be the first step.     -- TWZ