2
Under new law, patents would go to first-filers
Seal of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
Steve Chiotakis: Tomorrow, members of the National Small Business Association are hosting a forum on patent reform. Now, these days patents go to the person who can prove they invented an idea. But, under legislation working its way through Congress, patents could go to the first person to file.
Marketplace's Jennifer Collins reports.
Jennifer Collins: If the patent bill becomes law, the new rule of thumb will be: File Fast. File Frequently.
Gene Quinn: So I think the small companies are going to need to start filing on innovations no matter how small they are.
Gene Quinn is a patent attorney.
Quinn: In order to make sure that if the one that they're working on does pan out, they've got the basic coverage locked in.
That can get very expensive. Quinn says legal fees are in the thousands to file each application. Some products can have hundreds of patents, and entrepreneurs may not know which to protect.
Ron Katznelson runs a startup called Bi-Level Technologies.
Ron Katznelson: A lot of times, it takes eight months or a year to actually figure out that the specific aspect of the invention is not worth protecting. So you don't file it, you don't go through the expense.
But Gene Quinn says there is an upside: It could push companies to be more proactive about their inventions.
I'm Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.
The agents of banks, huge multinationals, and China are at it again trying to brain wash America. "patent reform" Just because they call it �reform� doesn�t mean it is. The patent bill is nothing less than another monumental federal giveaway for banks, huge multinationals, and China and an off shoring job killing nightmare for America. Even the leading patent expert in China has stated the bill will help them steal our inventions. Who are the supporters of this bill working for?? Patent reform is a fraud on America. This bill will not do what they claim it will. What it will do is help large multinational corporations maintain their monopolies by robbing and killing their small entity and startup competitors (so it will do exactly what the large multinationals paid for) and with them the jobs they would have created. The bill will make it harder and more expensive for small firms to get and enforce their patents. Without patents we cant get funded. Yet small entities create the lion's share of new jobs. According to recent studies by the Kauffman Foundation and economists at the U.S. Census Bureau, �startups aren�t everything when it comes to job growth. They�re the only thing.� This bill is a wholesale slaughter of US jobs. Those wishing to help in the fight to defeat this bill should contact us as below. Small entities and inventors have been given far too little voice on this bill when one considers that they rely far more heavily on the patent system than do large firms who can control their markets by their size alone. The smaller the firm, the more they rely on patents -especially startups and individual inventors. Please see http://truereform.piausa.org/default.html for a different/opposing view on patent reform. http://docs.piausa.org/
Good grief, just when I thought patent law couldn't possibly get any crazier and non-sensical, here's this idea. Whose idea is this, and what cabal of innovation-hating, economy-loathing vampires thought this up? Or did the Patent Office decide to throw in the towel completely? I guess it pays to be a patent attorney these days. Guaranteed employment for life.
