Since the creation of the simple and easy to follow patent system there have been over 50 changes and amendments to this system. These continue to make it simpler for someone to get a patent removing many of the requirements to show that it is useful and important or to show a working model. The laws have also become very muddled with respect to copyright. These items like patents were meant to give the author’s/creators protection for a limited period of time so that they could receive the benefit from their work. What the laws were not meant to do is give complete control over inventions, works of art, literature or other items forever.

In fact during the late 1800s many corporate entities were trying to do just that. They attempted to “corner the market” on goods, services and products. This prompted the creation of the Sherman Antitrust act which also led to many patents being ruled as invalid (to prevent companies from patenting devices and locking out competition). In the early 1900s Theodore Roosevelt’s administration actually started enforcing and providing the infrastructure for holding companies to task for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. In the 1930s (during serious economic troubles) the patent system came under fire again as a means to maintain a monopoly by big corporations.

After reading through this article I noted something very interesting. Every time the US patent system has loosened the laws that govern the granting of patents AND the federal government has relaxed its enforcement of antitrust laws the US ends up in an economic depression. This has happened time and again since the first revisions in the laws that govern the issuance of patents. What is most notable about this is that whenever corporations are allowed to file patents unchecked and unverified the economy suffers and technological progress is often put back by years. The byproduct of this is a serious damaging effect on the consumer and the market that truly drives the economy. Right now many governments are in love with big corporations because they hold the keys to large amounts of money. These politicians are often blinded by talks about job creation, job protection and how establishing longer running patents, copyrights and other protections on “intellectual property” will somehow save the planet. This is now and has always been a big fat lie.

Do we need a patent and copyright system? Of course we do! We should protect inventors, artists, authors and others that create the things that make the world a better place.  What we do not need is excessive patent terms, lifetime copyrights or the hundreds of high-profile legal battles that all claim to be to protect IP, but really are intended to stifle innovation and competition. What we really need now is a return to some of the simpler laws in the US, bring back the need to prove there is no Prior Art, bring back the limited copyright terms, get rid of the ability to patent the “look and feel” of something, make patents specific and unique again, and please get rid of the “first to file” and make it first to create again.

If we can do that and do it quickly perhaps we can get back to a healthy and stable economy that can create and invent combined with a consumer market that can actually afford the products and content being made.

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