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View Full Version : Microsoft pushes for single global patent system (CNet)



Drew Wilson
September 3rd, 2009, 01:02 AM
A senior lawyer at Microsoft is calling for the creation of a global patent system to make it easier and faster for corporations to enforce their intellectual property rights around the world.

In a blog posting on Tuesday, Microsoft's Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez said that a backlog of patent applications internationally was needed to tackle the 3.5 million pending patent applications around the world--including around 750,000 in the US.

"In today's world of universal connectivity, global business and collaborative innovation, it is time for a world patent that is derived from a single patent application, examined and prosecuted by a single examining authority and litigated before a single judicial body," said Guiterrez. "A harmonized, global patent system would resolve many of the criticisms leveled at national patent systems over unmanageable backlogs and interminable pendency periods."

Guiterrez went on to praise efforts to harmonize international patent systems through projects such ad the Patent Prosecution Highway and the "IP5" partnership but said more needed to be done to allow corporations to protect their intellectual property.

More... (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10334285-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5)

Let's imagine the US patent being on a global scale...

...

Oh no... no... NO NO NO NOOOOOO!!!!! For the love of humanity, NOOOO!!!!

mountain_rage
September 3rd, 2009, 10:33 AM
Doesn't anyone else find it ironic that he explicitly states the patent system as a corporations interest, rather than the individual inventors interest. This just reiterates what I have been saying for a long time, the patent system is broken, and it is pushed in the favor of corporations. It was intended to protect the interest of the little guy, now its simply used as a tool to hinder competition and monopolize ideas that should otherwise be common sense or natural development. Patents are too expensive for the lone inventor, and it worthless to them anyway since big corporations just sue them till they can't afford lawyer bills anyway. Scrap the current patent system and rethink it, than maybe I will support a global body.