149 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
149 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
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| File Name : INVENTOR.ASC | Online Date : 05/19/95 |
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| Contributed by : Josef Hasslberger| Dir Category : UNCLASS |
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| From : KeelyNet BBS | DataLine : (214) 324-3501 |
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| A FREE Alternative Sciences BBS sponsored by Vanguard Sciences |
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THE INVENTOR AND SOCIETY
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It has been suggested in a recent publication, that once an inventor makes an
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invention, it becomes public property. This is an interesting assertion and
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leads to a new view of the relationship between inventor and society, as
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presently regulated by patent and related laws. These laws as they exist in
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most countries today are woefully inadequate to protect the interests of the
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inventor on the one side and the interests of society on the other.
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The interests of the inventor
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Our patent laws, although made with good intent, have proven to be inadequate
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to provide any kind of acceptable protection for the inventor. For one thing,
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the laws are too complicated and the procedures for examining an invention and
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granting a patent too arbitrary, put into the hands of "patent examiners" that
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may or may not comprehend the essential newness of an invention and so reject
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it with the conception that "it cannot possibly work".
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Inventors often spend years of their life and huge amounts of money to get an
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invention patented, only to finally give up in resignation and disgust at the
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barriers that an efficient bureaucracy can put in the way of anything new.
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Small wonder that some inventors in their embitterment decide that mankind is
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really not yet ready for their invention, and that many a good invention
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instead of being used to the benefit of all dies with the inventor, the secret
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being taken into the grave to be buried forever.
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And if the inventor by sheer persistence manages to patent his invention, he
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then has to either sell or license the use of his patent. And there are many
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cases of inventors trying to collect what is due to them from powerful
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industrial societies who have at their disposal the best lawyers and who
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rarely pay without legal action. An uneven match to say the least.
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The interest of society
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Our patent laws also do not protect the interest of society, which is an
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interest in seeing that inventions once made actually get applied. Patents do
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not give an assurance of this, although some countries have regulations to
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force licensing of patents or production of the things patented. But in the
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face of commercial reluctance to use certain new procedures that would make
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yesterday's investments worthless, these regulations are quite inadequate.
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How often have patents been bought by powerful financial/industrial interests
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and have been put away in a deep drawer, never to be heard of anymore. I am
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sure some inventors would have stories to tell.
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It can certainly not be in the interest of society that an invention that is
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of potential benefit to the society can be bought and its use effectively
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prevented, using the very patent laws that should assure the invention getting
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into the hands of the public. In this way, the best of a society's
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intelligence is abused and suppressed, resulting in an artificially prolonged
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use of backward technological solutions, witness the state of our high-
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pollution energy production and car industries.
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I have purposely refrained from citing specific cases of suppression of
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inventions and/or inventors, because there exist books of well researched
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cases that are available to the interested reader and for certain further
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cases will appear in the course of debate of my suggestions.
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But what about our patent laws?
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Inventors in a way are very similar to artists. Theirs is a creative
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intelligence able to envision things that escape the notice of us mortals.
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They are the cream of society and their creations determine whether we will be
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able to live better in the future.
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Their inventions, once they are made become public property but the inventors,
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for making the invention, should be adequately recompensed. The compensation
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should be in line with the value of the invention, as expressed by its success
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in commerce.
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All inventions should be freely available to anyone to produce and put into
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commerce, save only the duty to pay a small percentage of the end-price to the
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inventor. The inventor's royalty thus becomes a part of the cost of the item.
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The inventor himself should not be taxed on royalties collected, given the
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intrinsic value of his creative work to society.
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There are of course some changes that would have to be made to the present
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patent laws. For one thing, Patent offices should have only these duties:
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- filing (against a small administrative charge) in chronological order, of
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all inventions.
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- conducting searches (again for a nominal fee) of existing inventions and
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advising the inventor who has filed an invention, if another has filed the
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same invention before, giving details about the previous filing.
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- deciding, in case of disputes, who is the rightful inventor of an invention
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based solely on chronological precedence of filing.
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- publishing all filings received in its official publication.
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The patent office should not issue or approve in any way a patent. No criteria
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may prevent the filing of an invention with the patent office, not even the
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previous filing of the same or a similar invention by another. No longer
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should there be an exclusive use of an invention granted to anyone. The
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inventions, after all, are public property.
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In order to collect the inventors' royalties, an association representing the
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inventors' interests should be established and affiliated to the patent
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offices. This would be an association similar to the associations that collect
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royalties for musical performances and pay these to the composers.
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The association of inventors would have as its main purpose the individuation
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of products on the market that utilize inventions which have been filed at the
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patent office, and the collection of a percentage of the sales-price, to be
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turned over to the inventor, minus a small charge to cover administrative
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costs.
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Disputes about the chronological precedence of inventions or the amount of
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royalty due should be resolved by a commission composed of both inventors and
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industrialists, attached to but independent from the patent office. Failing
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resolution of the dispute, the matter could then be taken to the normal
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courts.
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Thus we would have a new situation where all inventions would be freely
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available for commercial realization. The inventors would be recompensed for
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inventions that are actually being produced, in proportion to the usefulness
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of the invention as measured by its commercial success.
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Also, inventors would be free to make further inventions, instead of having to
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engage in court battles to get compensation for their work already completed.
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One could say: But what happens to all the inventions that are being made by
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the inevitable madman that are of no use to anyone? Don't they have to be
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eliminated by some process of selection as we know it from the present system
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of patent approval?
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No. They will simply be filed, published and then forgotten, because there
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will be no further interest in them, and at least no industrialist will be
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found to produce them.
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And if one of them gets produced anyway?
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Well, maybe then it wasn't such a bad invention after all.
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Josef Hasslberger
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Rome, Italy.
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