by No Mess Charley » Thu May 04, 2017 12:07 am
I have to admit the "patent" issue is one that gets me riled up! My understanding of the process is that you can apply for a provisional patent in any country in the world, which once issued, "supposedly" gives you 12 months protection for your invention world-wide. In the ensuing 12 months you need to develop your invention, get it to market, and then go about applying for a non-provisional patent in every market that you want to sell your product around the world, which ends up costing the fledgling business a fortune. My issue is, isn't it time for the international patent industry to get into the 21st century? Has nobody told them that there is now a thing called the Internet? Surely there should now be a worldwide online patent registry, rather than individual country registries? Why is it that someone can write a song, or write a book or speech, and they have universal rights to every line and verse they write? If someone, somewhere else, anywhere in the world, copies just one line or verse of their compilation, they are immediately adjudged guilty of plagiarism and libel in international courts for beach of copyright? But if someone, somewhere in the world invents a unique physical product, they have to go through this huge expense of filing for individual patents, only to have protection against "product plagiarism" in the countries that they have registered their patents in. However, in this day and age of Internet shopping, you can have a US patent for a product, but if someone copies your product idea in Indonesia, or India, they can sell it online directly to any consumer throughout the world. The frustration is of course, the problem has to be resolved by the patent industry themselves, and the last thing you can expect is, for them to kill the goose that is laying their golden egg!!