The impossible patent
Over at Patently-O, there is a somewhat lively discussion of a patent examiner's request for a working model of a Warp Drive Engine.
Below that, there is a list of some other highly questionable patents, including "2005-102494 GRAVITY CONTROL TIME MACHINE UTILIZING ACCELERATED MOTION TO WHICH GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY IS APPLIED".
Just out of curiosity, do we care that people have wasted their money on these applications? Should we care? Isn't it slightly more efficient to simply ignore these patents, allow them to obtain protection, and never get to a stage that they were enforceable? I mean, sure, they're "dumb" patents, and most people recognize them as such, so what's the big deal?
Are we really concerned that there is a chance that someone, within the next 20 years, will actually make a "gravity control time machine"? That's a mighty suspicious concern.
On the other hand, we don't want to flood the USPTO with frivilous patents. There may also be a number of border line cases, but, in that case, those patents would obtain standard examination. Seems like examiners should just move on and not waste time fighting these.
posted by Mike @ 8:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home