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ARE PATENTS FAIR?

ARE PATENTS FAIR?. Why Secrets Don’t Work. WHY PATENTS?. “Is it FAIR to allow patent owners to have a monopoly for 17 years?” Is it FAIR to be sued when I did not even know about the patent, and when I had never seen the product?. WHY PATENTS?. SECRETS CAN LAST LONGER

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ARE PATENTS FAIR?

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  1. ARE PATENTS FAIR? Why Secrets Don’t Work

  2. WHY PATENTS? • “Is it FAIR to allow patent owners to have a monopoly for 17 years?” • Is it FAIR to be sued when I did not even know about the patent, and when I had never seen the product?

  3. WHY PATENTS? SECRETS CAN LAST LONGER BUT THEN, SOCIETY’S COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE INCREASES VERY SLOWLY

  4. WHY PATENTS? • “The Congress shall have power ... to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” Article I, Section 8, United States Constitution, 1787.

  5. WHY PATENTS? • In exchange for a 17-year monopoly, The inventor must disclose the best version of his invention in a clear way, so as to allow others to copy it.

  6. WHY PATENTS? • "If I have seen further, ... • it is by standing upon • the shoulders of giants.” Isaac Newton, Letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675.

  7. INVENTORS DO NOT BLINDLY FOLLOW THE CROOKED PATHS OF "PRECEDENT"

  8. One day through the primeval wood A calf walked home, as good calves should; But left a trail all bent askew, A crooked trail, as all calves do.

  9. Since then, three hundred years have fled, And, I infer, the calf is dead. But still he left behind this trail, And thereby hangs my moral tale.

  10. The trail was taken up next day By a lone dog that passed that way; And then a wise bell-wether sheep Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep,

  11. And drew the flock behind him, too, As good bell-wethers always do. So from that day, o'er hill and glade, Through those old woods a path was made,

  12. And many men wound in and out, And bent and turned and dodged about, And uttered words of righteous wrath, Because 'twas such a crooked path;

  13. But still they followed ‑‑ do not laugh ‑‑ The first migrations of that calf, And through this winding woodway stalked Because he wobbled when he walked.

  14. This forest path became a lane, That bent and turned and turned again; This crooked lane became a road, Where many a poor horse, with his load,

  15. Toiled on, beneath the burning sun, And traveled some three miles in one. And thus a century and a half They trod the footsteps of that calf.

  16. The years passed on with swiftness fleet, The road became a village street, And this, before men were aware, A city's crowded thoroughfare.

  17. And soon the central street was this Of a renowned metropolis. And men two centuries and a half Trod the footsteps of that calf.

  18. Each day a hundred thousand rout Followed the zigzag calf about; And o'er his crooked journey went The traffic of a continent.

  19. A hundred thousand men were led By one calf near three centuries dead. They followed still his crooked way, And lost one hundred years a day;

  20. For thus such reverence is lent To well-established precedent. A moral lesson this might teach, Were I ordained and called to preach.

  21. For men are prone to go it blind Along the calf-paths of the mind, And toil away from sun to sun To do what other men have done.

  22. They follow in the beaten track, And out and in, and forth and back, And still their devious course pursue To keep the path that others do.

  23. But how the wise old wood-gods laugh, Who saw the first primeval calf! Ah! many things this tale might teach; But I am not ordained to preach.

  24. Roman war chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of two war horses. The Romans built roads in Britain. Roman war chariots made the initial ruts in those roads.

  25. The later British wagon-builders used the rut-spacing for the distance between the wheels, because if they used any other spacing, the wagons would break on some of the old roads. The British who later built tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons.

  26. The British who built the first railroads were the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and so they used the same wheel-spacing. British expatriates built the first U.S. railroads, using the same wheel-spacing.

  27. Thus, the U.S. standard railroad gauge (the distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches, just wide enough to accommodate the backends of two Roman war horses.

  28. WHY PATENTS? • PATENTS HELP TO IMPROVE LIFE FOR EVERYBODY, BY SHARING KNOWLEDGE, & ENCOURAGING NEW INVENTIONS

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