[Patents] reasons for explosion of patent application numbers

[Nick@bigfatpanda.fsnet.co.uk (Nick Fleming)]

> There has been some talk about the explosion of pat appl numbers worldwide
> and one explanation is that this is largely due to the entry of new
> countries such as India, which were pushed into the worldwide system
> of extensive patenting by the TRIPS treaty.  Others say that more and
> more people are inventing things, yet another hypothesis is that patents
> are becoming increasingly easy to obtain for a broad range of ideas.
> Maybe all are true, but we don't know to which extent they explain the
> increase.
>

Here in the U.K at least, as far as i can ascertain, the costs of applying,
filing and maintaining a patent have been greatly reduced over the past
decade or so, which as a result, would definately enable more people to
attempt to gain them.

    The cynic in me says its a result of a Denial Of Service (DOS) attack by
some multinationals to flood the system so that fewer 'undesirable' patents
(i.e. competitors patents ) have less chance of being issued.

    It would be interesting to see a table of the number of patents
issued/applied for
to companies just to see if such a filing tactic was in use / possible.

Regards,

Nick