From phm@a2e.de  Fri May  4 20:06:32 2001
From: phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 21:06:32 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [Patents] patent systems as state symbols
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0105042017390.4511-100000@mulix.oas.a2e.de>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0105042049170.4854-100000@mulix.oas.a2e.de>

> Werner Siemens explained in several responses to critical economists that
> the patent system was meant to be a means of regulating competition
> between companies and that any cultivation of myths about the individual
> inventor should be avoided, as they have nothing to do with the economic
> rationale of introducing this system.  He also stressed that the main
> benefit of the system consists in spreading important technical
> information earlier than would be likely if one were to rely on business
> secrets.
>
> All these arguments were not taken very seriously for a while. The
> economists pointed out that ideas would be disclosed sooner or later and
> that people would usually only patent those ideas, which they expect to be
> disclosed anyway.  They also pointed to the losses generated by
> monopolies.  On one major congress of economists in the 1860s there was an
> almost unanimous resolution saying that patents block competition and
> stifle innovation.  This received the warm support of Otto v. Bismarck
> who also spoke about this issue.
>
> However, in 1871 the new nation state (2nd empire) was founded, and it
> needed some symbols of its importance.  Moreover there was an economic
> recession and a wave of criticism against the "liberal ideology" of the
> economists.  These two waves allowed the patent system to be introduced in
> 1873, together with a couple of protectionist laws on import tariffs.

This brings us directly back to the issue of the

	European Community Patent

	aka

	European Union Patent

In the EPO annual report of 1997 you can find an euphoric foreword by Dr.
Ingo Kober, titled

	One Europe, One Currency, One Patent

Part of this symbolism is also related to the introduction of a uniform
patent language through the Community Patent.  This has the meaning of a
kind of European official language, and some people prefer a multilingual
Europe.  I think this aspect is more important than economic aspects, both
for explaining the drive behind the Community Patent and the resistance
against it.

The EPO preface also had a German version

	Ein Europa, Eine Waehrung, Ein Patent

which of course has an unwanted resonance with

	Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuehrer

for which we don't want to blame the EPO, just as we don't want to blame
the introducers of the "employee's inventor law" and the "inventor
romanticsm" movement for their accidental historical affiliations.

After all, patent offices were also symbols of national independence when
the Soviet Union collapsed.  Each new state, however small, multiracial
and unindustrialised, had to introduce its

	- national mythology
	- currency
	- patent system

In the 1980s, "communist" China reintroduced a patent system.  Recently
they renamed their patent office to "State Intellectual Property Office",
and they, together with Algeria, were the ones who proposed to the UN that
April 26 should become the "Intellectual Property Day".  The Communist
Party Daily (Renmin Ribao) celebrated it on its front page on April 26,
stating that Intellectual Property will expand for years to come.  They
have also admitted software patents.  However so far there are almost no
Chinese patenting activities, which is one more reason for them to
propagate that day.  In this respect, their self-destructive subservience
to some perceived tendency of the time is even more absurd than that of
the Europeans.  The rationale of the People's Daily, quoting the head of
the "State Intellectual Property Office", Wang Jingchuan, is in this case:
"China will build its nation based on science and technology, and for this
it must foster a respect for science and technology and for intellectual
property."

It seems patent offices are great means for governments to make themselves
look important.  The EU Green Paper also shows this tendency.  "If the EU
has so far not contributed to the building of the Internet etc, it is now
all the more time for us to show our importance" the rationale seems to
be.  This is best achieved by (a) Community Patent (b) extending the
patent system to the Internet economy.

-phm





