Threat to patent system and its solution

Patent laws protect the innovators to gain the financial benefits from their inventions. It also prevents others from getting monetary advantages using the unique ideas of others. The Word ‘Patent” is the derivative of the Latin term ‘litterae patentes’ which means an open letter. This type of open letter were conferred the rights of the inventors with a royal seal of kingdom. The seal was a proof king’s approval to the inventor’s rights.

 

 

 

 

The modern concept of patent law and other legal protection of Intellectual properties came after the industrial revolution in Europe. The industrial revolution opened the floodgates of new inventions. Inventors demanded the protection the rights of their unique ideas. The leading industrial countries realized the needs of formulating comprehensive patent laws to protect the financial interest of inventors. In the reign of Queen Anne, the law officers of the Crown established as a condition of grant that “the patentee must by an instrument in writing describe and ascertain the nature of the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed”. United States of America introduced the first modern patent law in 1790 and France introduced it in 1791.

 

 

After the development of transport system, the movement of goods from one country to another created a threat to the protection of intellectual property rights. Then the protection of IP became evident to resist the stealing the idea of one country by another country. Paris Convention of 1983 took a bold initiative to internationalize the protection of IP rights. The convention devised a mechanism to facilitate protection of IP rights simultaneously in the member countries without any loss in the priority date. Only 11 countries signed in the first Paris Convention, 173 countries have now become the members of Paris Convention (WIPO, November, 2008).

 

 

However, the misuse of the patent law has now covered a dark cloud in the utility of patent law. A section of mischievous people and organizations are extracting money from the inventors using the loopholes of the patent system. Patent trollis one of the most notorious designs for acquiring money filling a lawsuit against the inventors. On the other hand, pharmaceutical and other companies are selling the monopolized patented essential commodities at an exorbitant rate. In this way, they are exploiting the common people. Large number of vague patents is hindering the scope of new creations. Therefore, the people are now demanding the drastic reformation of the patent system.

 

 

 

 

OnlineMBA a renowned MBA School has suggested three options to fix the problem.

 

 

• • Abolish patent system: Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine, two research fellows of St. Louis Federal Reserve argued, “There is no evidence that patents improve the productivity”. On the other hand, the prolonged legal battle on infringement of patents is obstructing the new inventions. Abolition of the system will save the wastage of time and money.

 

 

• • Tighten the scope of what is an invention: In last year, the court ordered Samsung to pay $ 1billion to Apple. Apple started a legal proceeding against Samsung claiming that the defender ripped off the I-Phone of respondent. What was the infringement? Samsung copied the rectangular design of Apple I-Phone. Does the shape and size fall into the category of unique idea?

 

 

• • Recruit more specialists and judges: Every patent application should be verified by expert panels. Patents are issued to the unique ideas. If it is not verified by the specialists, the non-innovative ideas can get the patent due to the ignorance of the patent officers. Similarly, the non technical judge cannot understand the cleverly plotted infringement case for extracting money from the genuine inventor. For more information, you may contact Lex Protector.