The Patent Cold War

Quentin Stafford-Fraser on the Patent Cold War. Good stuff:

"The current patent system is something of a farce. Almost everybody involved in it knows this, but it's a game we all have to keep playing because nobody can afford to be the first one to stop...

And so we have the first major problem. The acquisition of patents, instead of being a means to an end, has become an end in itself...

And so this is problem number two: Lots of people have the ideas, but the wrong people are getting most of the patents...

And so we come to a very clichéd but nonetheless important problem number three: In the end, whether a patent is worth anything depends chiefly on how much you can afford to spend on lawyers. Even if you rightfully have the patent, you may not win...

And so we come to my last major concern, that a lot of the ideas for which patents are granted probably aren't very novel. So the system isn't really stimulating technological development by granting people 20-year monopolies on them..."