On Friday 03 November 2006 21:02, jfweber@gilweber.com wrote:
10:17 pm, Darryl Gregorash wrote: ...
What *is* a real impediment to innovation and progress is the idiotic system which allows a patent to be issued for nothing more than the *idea* of putting a GPS unit onto a PCI card.
You are wrong, it's not *just* the idea, someone must actually have a working or workable way to do it.. they have to produce diagrams AND a working model.
Untrue. The term of art in patent law is "reduction to practice." It is not required for a valid patent filing in the U.S. However, their is a "non-obviousness" requirement, and the example of combining GPS with a PCI card is clearly obvious and this (hypothetical?) example should be rejected by the PTO (Patent and Trademark Office). However, in our inestimable wisdom (specifically, that government is bad), we've decided to starve those agencies that might serve to impede the accumulation of wealth and power within the hands of a few people, dynastic families or large corporate institutions. The PTO has nowhere near enough staff to properly examine all the submitted applications, so many are just rubber-stamped. Especially those from "reputable" corporations such as Microsoft and Amazon.com. The EPA and FDA are similarly famished.
... -- j
RRS