ESP Wiki is looking for moderators and active contributors!

Harm caused by all types of patents

Revision as of 14:38, 21 January 2011 by 122.164.56.40 (talk) (Other arguments against patents)

While most campaigns against software patents think it's better to focus specifically on excluding software, some people think the whole patent system should be axed. This is of course another way to get rid of software patents.

Patents failing in general

As well as the protests against patents on software ideas, other fields where patents draw particular criticism are pharmaceuticals and agricultural products.

In September 2008, the staff of the EPO went on strike to complain about the decline in patent quality.[1][2] In May 2009, the EPO President Alison Brimelow announced she would be stepping down after less than two years in the job.[3] Also in May 2009, the EPO office in Munich was surrounded by pigs and tractors in a protest against patents on biotech.[4]

Comparison to hardware manufacturing

The problem of blocking useful freedoms, which is very clear for software, can be seen to an extent in other fields.

While individuals and communities often don't manufacture hardware (see the Amana Corporation and Community) they sometimes do, and even when they don't, the question of individual liberty is important. A device that was not operable by women for example would not be acceptable in most societies.

If someone patents a method for making hardware, it may not directly reduce people's liberty, however if may indirectly do so. For example a patent was recently issued for a propane powered lawnmower. Propane powered lawnmowers had been made by hobbyists for years, however the issuance of this patent makes converting a gasoline fueled lawnmower to propane fuel by a hobbyist illegal. It is possible that this patent was not legally issued, depending upon how the patent office rules are interpreted.

It has been argued that making and designing hardware requires a large amounts of money and materials, that there are laws and regulations that place restrictions on making various types of hardware. While this is true, anyone with a minimal amount of education can learn how to build large hardware projects, for an example in Scrappy Races competitors have to build Automobiles out of scrap with a limited budget, and race them across the United Kingdom. As an example of a patent that could affect this sort of competition is the one litigated in KSR vs Teleflex where the patent in question was invalidated by the Supreme Court of the United States. The patent covered a particular shape of lever, which was found to be obvious by the court.

All of the arguments against software patents, also apply to hardware patents. The issues are:

  1. Do we limit our effectiveness by only arguing against one issue?
  2. Do we make ourselves more effective by only arguing against one issue?
  3. Do we leave ourselves open to further attack at a later time by only arguing one issue?

Wayne's research

A study a while back by Groklaw contributor Wayne aka "The Mad Hatter", which involved reading several hundred patent applications, which was mentioned in a post. In this study, he found not even one valid patent.[1] The patents checked were patents that:

a) He had an interest in. b) Were in a field he had expertise in.

None of the patents that he understood met the US Patent Office regulations for issuance of a patent, according to his understanding of those regulations. Some patents, about 10% of the total, he noted that he couldn't understand. He noted that the odds of reaching similar numbers with another batch of patents was, in his estimation, quite high.

Wayne's proposal to repeat the experiment

Wayne has proposed: "As a result, I propose that we look into a cross section of patents. I will evaluate those that I can for validity, and I'd like to ask others to do the same. While this will be ad-hoc, by using a larger sample size, we will be able to further proof that there are issues with patents in general." (This can be discussed on Talk:Should the whole patent system be axed)

To do this, it is necessary to look at the conditions for patentability, specifically with reference to the US Patent Office, since many of the problems appear to stem from the United States, either through patents issued there which would not be issued in other jurisdictions (Business Method Patents not Legal in Canada), or through attempts to export the American Patent Regime to other states (Europe Under Patent Siege - 1/2 way down page).

Other arguments against patents

  • Companies and individuals will not cease to innovate if there were no patents. The software industry grew by leaps and bounds when there were no patent protection at all. Science papers are not patentable at all but the number of published science papers doubles every 10 years. So the argument that innovation and invention needs monopoly privileges to incentivize them is bull.
  • Ideas are dime a dozen so cost exactly $0.008 per Idea. Ideas that are so worthless should not be glorified by the government and the people and monopolized.
  • It is impossible to invent anything without infringing on someone's patent. All ideas build on previous ideas.
  • Even if everyone were to stop inventing its not a big deal, as mankind is prosperous and advanced enough for me. So why encourage patents in the hope that people will invent more stuff? We don't need to invent anymore, though that wont stop anyone from inventing.
  • Patents stifle competition and thus harms innovation. For a small niggling improvement that I make on an automobile part I will have to negotiate with hundreds of other patentees in order to manufacture that part in order to benefit from my invention, a daunting task.
  • Patenting encourages the pharmaceutical industry to discard tried and tested drugs whose patents have expired in favor of new and dangerous drugs just so they can continue to milk mankind by poisoning it for their profit. Surely we don't need more poisonsous drugs than what is already there on the market.
  • Some of the most important ideas of mankind are unpatentable like Einstein's theory of relativity. Einstein wasn't promised a single dime (through monopoly laws) for inventing relativity, that didn't stop him from inventing it.

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links

  • This article indicates that patents might be slowing the progress of environmental progres

References