Patent Fallacies

[slehar@park.bu.edu]

Thanks to Steve Gallant for  a very clear  and convincing explaination
of the patent issue.   I was particularly  impressed with the argument
that  Patents are designed to  ENCOURAGE free exchange of information,
which was a new concept for me.

I have a couple of questions still-

when you say that The majority of patents granted do not result in the
inventor making  back  legal  costs and filing  fees, is  this because
inventors have an unreasonably high esteem for their own  creation and
thus tend to patent things that should not  have been patented?  Or is
this  just "insurance" to cover the  uncertainty of the  prospects for
the  product,  and   constitutes a   proper  cost of  the business  of
inventing?  Or is it a way  to purchase prestige  for the organization
that pays for the patent?

How  much do patents typically cost,  and where does that money really
go to?   Is this another tax,  or are we really  getting value for our
money?

You say that  a patent must be  non-obvious to  those "skilled in  the
art".  What if  somebody  releases some software  to public domain  as
free software, and which  is  clearly  the  work of  a  genius?  After
release, can  somebody  else  "steal"   the idea  and  patent  it  for
themselves,  or is the  public release  sufficient education to  those
"skilled in  the art" as  to render it  henceforth obvious and thereby
unpatentable?

Finally, is there not a growing practical  issue that as things become
easier to  copy, the   patent and copyright laws become  progressively
more difficult to enforce?   Unenforcable laws are worse than useless,
because they stimulate  the  spread of intrusive  police  measures and
legal expenses in a futile attempt to stop the unstoppable.   Computer
software is  currently  the toughest  problem in this regard,  but the
recent digital tape fiasco and growing problem of illegal photocopying
are just  the beginning- what  happens when a  patented life form gets
bootlegged and starts replicating itself at will?  Will the advance of
technology  not  eventually make  all   copyrights  and most   patents
worthless?