All About Patents - Again!
Added 2024-09-17 15:24:47 +0000 UTCReiterating what I have said before, but it bears repeating, lest anyone would want to try it... But by all means, you do you. And here's a little jam for you!
Comments
This is reminding me of the late, great Don Lancaster's "Case Against Patents." https://www.tinaja.com/glib/casagpat.pdf
Circuitmike
2025-03-11 15:18:32 +0000 UTCAs a patent examiner, more people need to hear about the pitfalls of patents. The patent office does offer a micro-entity fee of about $500 and expedited prosecution, but very very few patents actually make money and most patent attorneys are just happy to collect fees and not even understand the invention or its utility. individual inventors think that what they have is groundbreaking, but it was invented a decade to a hundred years ago and failed in the marketplace. If you're a small manufacturer, maybe a patent can help you in an eventual scenario where your product is being ripped off or copied, but for most individuals it's a frustrating expensive ego trip, like self funding the publication of your own novel.
Gideon Weinerth
2024-09-18 03:47:01 +0000 UTCI had a patentable idea 35 years ago when I didn't have the application fee. A superficial search now shows only two barely related patents. The likely manufacturers haven't developed any actual product. Now it's financially infeasible to move forward, so I have done some more development and will open source it instead. With modern electronics the device part of the idea would be cheaper than a multimeter and the business method part would seem obvious to anyone in the particular field, even though nobody is offering anything similar.
Michael F Barushok
2024-09-17 21:08:07 +0000 UTC
