[Patents] consultation questions

[ramon@jl1.quim.ucm.es (Ram'on Garc'ia Fern'andez)]

On Mon, May 07, 2001 at 09:18:41PM +0200, gepicaam wrote:
> > Let me state that in a more direct way :
> > 0)- I fully understand that managers from SMEs are interested in you
> > helping them patenting their algorithms if you tell them they can do it 
> > and
> that it will be good for them.
> 
> It's not exactly what happens: First, SMEs are interested in patenting their
> innovations, and then only they will contact a patent attorneyŠ My first
> proposal is often to conduct a search in order to take in count prior art
> patent and competitors patents.

What usually happens is that a company gets a patent lawsuit with a
trivial patent. Based in their common sense, they think that this
patent must be invalid. They learn in the court that however "obvious"
the "invention" might seem, it is held valid in court. And so they
start doing the same thing, filing for trivial patents. This mechanism
generates "patent inflation".

> > 1)- However, the study that I point you to states that patents are of no 
> > use
> to SMEs, because it offers them no guarantee.
> 
> I don¹t agree. Many of my client became successful by using their patents in
> licensing and organizing their partnershipŠ

Defending a patent in court costs about 100.000.000 $/per claim on
average.  Many small companies cannot afford these prices. Some have
been bankrupted because they cannot pay their defense, even if they
have proof of prior art that invalidates the infringed patent. Not
surprisingly, the most passionate supporters of software patents are
patent lawyers.

Futhermore, I have not ever heard Breese any suggestion for a improving
the patent system so that trivial patents are avoided.

You, patent lawyers are playing a dangerous game: all or nothing. You
expect the European Commission to be stupid enough that it will not
notice that according to the current case law almost anything, however
straightforward, can be patented; and you expect to start a great
business out of thousands of trivial patents, like your colleagues in
the USA are doing. But there is high risk that the European Commission
will notice, and you will achieve nothing. In that case you will be
victim of your own arrogance. If you were honest, you would submit a
reasonable proposal of limited patentability, looking for a balance
between the monopoly granted and the research cost involved.

Ramon