[Patents] American Inventor Coalition / was Re: Software and Technical effect

[rjriley@rjriley.com (Ronald J Riley)]

----- Original Message -----
From: "PILCH Hartmut" <phm@a2e.de>
To: "Ronald J Riley" <rjriley@rjriley.com>
Cc: <epo@mlist.austria.eu.net>; <patents@aful.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: Software and Technical effect


<<This sounds very much like patent lobby, not like programmer or creator.
But of course lobbying itself is quite legitimate.>>

I am a commercially successful inventor, my income is from royalties on 
patents
I hold.

I have been programming since I was 13 years old.  First in ALGOL and then a
year or so later in FORTRAN.  I have programmed in many languages.  This has
included machine and high level.  Mainframe early on and then mini computers 
in
the early1970s time frame.  Once Micros emerged I did a great deal of both
hardware and software design.  Initially in the medical arena and then I moved
to industrial controls.  I mastered PLC as used for automation and CNC.  I 
also
did a great deal of gauging, first in analog and then using digital hardware.
If you want to know more just click the personal page link below.

Even more important is that I have both launched successful businesses and 
some
that failed.  And I have held a broad spectrum of jobs including being in 
upper
management of a subsidiary of Sun oil.  I bailed out in 1990 to earn my living
solely as an independent inventor.

American independent inventors have for the first time in the history of our
country become a significant political force.  We held so called "patent 
reform"
hostage for over five years, and what was finally passed was a ghost of what 
the
multinational companies had sought.  Yes, we do lobby our government to 
protect
our interests.  We lobby via the Alliance for American Innovation, a 
Washington,
DC based organization which we created to educate congress about the needs of
independent inventors.

We use both a carrot, and even more important a fairly big stick to make our
point.  For example, I personally organized the inventor coalition in the 
state
of Michigan which helped take Senator Abraham's www.SenatorAbraham.org scalp 
in
the last election.

That is why there will be little to no harmonization of our patent system 
until
our concerns are addressed.

> Personal page:
> http://www.rjriley.com/about-rjriley/
> Views expressed are my own.

<<It might be interesting, if you can afford the time, if you tell us which
of your inventions would not have been financeable without patent
monopolies and how that has helped the rest of us.>>

At this time my income is derived from five patents related to the control of
electrified monorail systems.  You may view them using the link above.  The
income is great enough that I no longer need to hold a conventional job.  That
would not be the case in the absence of the patents, for big business would 
have
cheerfully taken, in fact did try to take, my work and not compensated me.  In
fact, I had to kick the crap out of a number of large companies in order to 
get
paid.

Those patents have created over 400 million a year in gross national product 
for
the US, half of which is in my state (Michigan).  This translates into about
4000 jobs.

Ronald J. Riley  www.rjriley.com