From phm@a2e.de  Wed Jul 25 22:31:26 2001
From: phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 23:31:26 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [Patents] [APRIL] Brevet sur la roue.
In-Reply-To: <E15PUBc-0000hD-00@debian>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0107252322100.3943-100000@mulix.oas.a2e.de>

>  > A Melbourne man has patented the wheel. Freelance patent attorney John
>  > Keogh  was   issued  with  an   Innovation  Patent  for   a  "circular
>  > transportation  facilitation device"  within  days of  the new  patent
>  > system being invoked in May.
>  >
>  > http://www.theage.com.au/news/state/2001/07/02/FFX0ADFPLOC.html

We discussed this on the list before.
It seems that Australia now, like France, no longer conducts
official patent examinations.
This could mean that the patent will be examined in one form or other
before or during an infringement proceeding, and the patentee will bear
the risks and the costs involved in suing someone using a frivolous
patent, rather than make the state certify that this patent is valid.
The person who filed this wheel patent is a patent lawyer.
Patent lawyers have lost a market through the Australian reform.

While just removing examination without any replacement does create some
problems, examination itself also creates a lot of problems.
Some writers in the 70s, including Gert Kolle, stated that the examination
system will in the long run be hard to justify given the combination of
long duration and unreliable results.  This situation has not
changed.  The EPO takes five years to examine some of its patents, and
we know what the results are.  Usually, when problems are around for a
long time, the chance for discussion on improvements is simply over, and
the project is cancelled.  This is at least what a capitalist enterprise
would do.

--
Hartmut Pilch                                           http://phm.ffii.org/
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation	      http://swpat.ffii.org/
80000 signatures against software patents         http://www.noepatents.org/










