Patent Law Absurdity Hits New Levels
Monday, March 20th, 2006Michael Crichton violates some patent laws in an op-ed in the NY Times:
- The Earth revolves around the Sun.
- The speed of light is a constant.
- Apples fall to earth because of gravity.
- Elevated blood sugar is linked to diabetes.
- Elevated uric acid is linked to gout.
- Elevated homocysteine is linked to heart disease.
- Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient needs vitamins.
Most people know that Thomas Edison was a voracious inventor, eventually obtaining patents on 1,093 of his inventions.
Of course, you’d have to read his biography to know that by the end of his career, he thought patents were basically useless.
People would steal his ideas (some of them very ingenious, of course), and often there was very little he could do about it.
The choice seems to be:
A) become really good at implementing and executing a plan behind your invention / application of an idea you have
— OR —
B) become really good at cranking out massive quantities of overly-broad patents, then hiring lawyers to beat people over the head with ‘em!
Option B just doesn’t sound too appealing to me, despite its lucrative potential.
