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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Patents, schmatents (was: hi)
 It's difficult to improve the system by beefing up the examination process. Humans are too good at getting around obstacles and getting off on technicalities. It's probably the trait that spurred our ancestors out of the trees and onto the savannah then into a Mercedes. I think a better approach would be to place some risk on the patent applicants by making the applicant pay a financial penalty if prior art exists. As it stands now, applying for a patent is a bit like buying a lottery ticket. If you win, "great!"; if you lose, "aah well". [1] Perhaps if the applicant (and their patent attorney) were required to pay a penalty when the examiner finds prior art then inventors would be less likely to buy a ticket when they think the odds may be stacked against them. The difficulty with this approach is that it would discourage the mum and pop inventors much more than the large corporates; but perhaps some differential penalty could be applied (this last sentence is the regulatory equivalent of "then magic happens" in a software spec). --- [1] Patent applicants have an obligation to disclose prior art, but an applicant would have to be pretty unlucky to get nicked breaching that obligation. Doug Hudgeon -----Original Message----- From: Jeff Lowery [mailto:Jeff.Lowery@c...] Sent: Saturday, 31 January 2004 7:30 AM To: xml-dev@l... Subject: Patents, schmatents (was: hi) Maybe patents shouldn't be examined, but instead awarded by vote through some sort of representative body drawn from industry, academia, and members-at-large. It might inject into the process a measure of common sense. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl> 
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