Jul
31
2009
Patents
A thought, regarding simple rule to restore the balance:
If, in the intervening time between a patent being applied for and granted, the invention is independently crafted by an unconnected party, the patent should automatically be invalidated.
(In other words, the “prior art” test should be applied up to the point of granting, not the filing date).
Of course, this gets murky where the patent is filed and the invention itself is marketed—it wouldn’t be clear then that the competing implementation was unconnected. It would put a stop to a lot of patent trolling, however.
