[Patents] Patnews on Pierret

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr> (Bernard Lang)]

patents are a restriction on freedom.  Hence it is to the pro-patents to
prove that patents are useful, and not the other way around.
  Your constitution says as much.

Now, I fully agree that economic analysis cannot establish this usefulness
in a totally objective and undisputable way.

  However, being less of a totalitarian that Greg, I am willing to
accept reasonable evidence in given fields of technology.  Certainly
not in all, because there is no reason that the economic analysis
should be the same.

regarding cigarettes ... yes ... patents should not be granted ...
there are already provisions in the law, at least in some, that
patents cannot be granted for harmful invention, or invention that can
cause social disruption.  The pro-cancer lobby has just been too
strong so far, and is protecting its interest, just like the
pro-patent lobby.


But I would like someone to answer the question about security
that I asked earlier.

  what was the reasoning ?

Bernard


On Tue, Jul 10, 2001 at 11:57:01AM -0400, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> Bernard writes:
> > what is more important, the only criterion for me is social usefulness
> > ....
> > social usefulness has to be defined by technical domain
> 
> While I can support such a criteria, I also see a problem with it.
> With regards to supporting such a criteria, it is yet another reason
> why software is as patentable as any other technology - software is a
> technology that can have its social utility assessed.  Such a criteria
> also is compatible with my long term goal of improving software patent
> quality, since a software patent of low to no quality (i.e. software
> that already has been published and is in the public domain) has zero
> or provides zero additional usefulness to society.  And for all of the
> bad software patents with no social usefulness, there are many patents,
> if not as many patents, in other fields of technology, with little to
> no social usefulness (there is a recently issued US patent for dipping
> your baby's bottom in ink and stamping a blank piece of paper :-).
> 
> The problem I have with this is similar to the problem I have with
> any sui generis system that requires non-market forces to assess the
> economic value of the patent.  Who does the assessment?  Who determines
> what is socially useful?  In the US, patents have a utility requirement
> already, but it really doesn't take much to satisfy this requirement
> (I will argue anything someone is will to spend thousands of dollars
> trying to patent is at least useful to that person, and presumably
> others).  But social utility?  Go read the economic literature -
> economists are still trying to make the concept less subjective.
> 
> For example, what is the social utility of any patents dealing with  the
> cancer causing, drug delivery cartel industry of cigarettes?  Should all
> such patents be prohibited according to Bernard's criteria?
> 
> Such a criteria is an interesting proposal for research.  You should get
> INRIA to apply for a grant from the EC to study it.  But such a criteria
> is yet another property that software shares with other technologie,
> making it one more reason why software should be, and is, as patentable
> as any other technology.
> 
> The goal then is to fix the entire patent prosecution system, to improve
> quality, to put patent busters like me out of work - and not to create
> all sorts of special rules for each industry.
> 
> Greg Aharonian
> 
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