Patent Reform - Not A Good Idea

The patent process in America has been broken for a long time. It takes far too long to approve new patents and the process is prohibitively expensive. President Obama signed new patent legislation this week that makes some improvements but also, in my opinion, makes a huge mistake. The new reform grants patents on "First to File" rather than "First to Invent". I can see the logic behind the change as a way to limit lawsuits, but as someone who considers himself somewhat of an inventor I worry that the new process will invite fraud and will favor wealthy investors more than brilliant inventors.

Suppose two people come up with a similar idea near the same time. The one who thought of the idea first is financially strapped and the other one has considerable expendable income. Since the patent process remains expensive, the first person doesn't even have a chance to file even though they clearly had the idea first.

Then there are those that would take advantage of this situation. I'll use Google as an example. Google, like many companies these days have massive cross-linked databases that record every move I make - and more importantly every word I search. If I try to do a preliminary search for an idea to see if it already exists, Google can "harvest" that search. With the monetary power of the Google empire - filing a patent could be done instantly - leaving me without any hope of profiting off my great idea. And what if if I discussed my idea with my best friend or a family member - only to have them rush off and file a patent before I can . Even a crooked patent lawyer could take an idea and patent it first.

Patent reform only needed two important improvements. The process needs to be cheaper and faster. They shouldn't have messed with the "First to Invent" process - that was the only part of the patent system that actually protected the inventor. Had they kept that but made the system quicker and cheaper, we would see many more inventions - and financially rewarded inventors.

I have always felt that my financial independence would ultimately result from a brilliant idea rather than being a corporate drone. Looks like I might be a drone for the rest of my life.