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Criticism of Patent Law |
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While knowing About Patents, it is also quite important to know about the various criticism of patent law. According to a patent law, a person is granted the right to for his/her invention or discovery of any new and useful method, machine, matter composition, process, manufacturing article, or any other types of new and useful improvement. The first and foremost criticism of patent law is that while each of the four incentives is obtained in some contexts by the system of patent, the patent system has countervailing costs. These costs, in some contexts falls more heavily than in others.
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There are several critics and criticisms of patent law that has resulted to the formation of a large number of groups opposing patents in general or only some specific types of patents and lobbies for their abolishment.In the history of patents it has been found that there was constant criticism against patent law for being granted on those inventions that are already known. For instance, in the year 1938, R. Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome stated that the present US patent files are so unusually complex and the items are so unnumberable that a veritable governmental army is required for attending and sorting them. In the list of patent law criticism, it has been found that patents have also been criticized for granting a “negative right” on a patent owner, thus permitting them in expelling competitors from using or exploiting the patented invention, even if the competitor succeeds in developing the same invention independently. This can be consequently to the date of invention, or even to the priority date that depends on the relevant patent law.
Patents can also hinder innovation. A holding company known as a “patent troll” is the owner of a portfolio of patents and litigates others for infringement cases of these patents while attempting very little to develop the technology itself. One more theoretical problem regarding patent rights was pointed out by the law professors Rebecca Sue Eisenberg and Michael Heller in the year 1998 in a Science article. From Heller’s theory regarding the tragedy of the anticommons, the professors posited that intellectual property rights can become so broken up that effectively no advantage can be enjoyed by any one, and will require an agreement between all the owners of the different fragments.
Since the early 1980s, patent offices accepted that computer programs can be included within the domain of patentable subject matter, although there will be regulations as to when a computer program to be considered as a patentable invention. This law differs remarkably between countries, and thus became a criticism of the patent law.
For more updates on patents, click to the links offered in our site www.patentshub.com.
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