The quality of patents granted in the technology industry is worse than in any other major sector, according to a survey of US patent holders.
The survey, which was published by the Intellectual Property Owners Association last week, found that 10 percent of companies who hold patents in the computer, electronics or software industry thought the quality of patents being issued is poor, while 40 percent thought it was less than satisfactory.
The overall perception of patent quality is lower than in the chemicals, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industry, and the consumer products, machinery and general manufacturing industry. In these industries, none of the respondents thought the quality of patents being issued was poor, although around half thought the quality of patents was less than satisfactory.
Respondents from the technology industry also had a more negative view on the change in patent quality over time.
Across all industries, 24 percent of respondents thought the quality of patents was "somewhat worse" than three years ago and 29 percent thought it would decline over the next three years. In the technology industry, 27 percent of respondents thought patent quality had decreased over this period and 40 percent thought it would fall over the next three years.
Eighty companies were interviewed for the survey, the majority of which had annual revenues of over $1bn (£600m).
The full survey can be viewed on the IPO Web site.
Talkback
So in other words, 90% of companies in the sector were content with the quality of the granted patents and 60% were more than satisfied. Your report on the findings of this study is a typically biased distortion of the actual findings.
In other words, about 99% don't have a clue. Which is perfectly normal since about 99% don't have what it takes to really understand the issues at hand.
Which is most likely why there are tons of people out there that think they are doing just fine. Clueless as they are.
Fact is that the current state of affairs concerning IT related patents are basicly a laughing stock. And only the commercially self interested find any value in that (how suprising).
Unlucky for us that's where the most funded lobbying comes from so it'll take some time before clueless people with decision making powers will truly understand the consequences of their actions.
Never mind the effort required to undo damages done.
re: Patent quality 'worst in technology industry'
Ingrid Marson
ZDNet UK
September 21, 2005, 08:30 BST
Ingrid:
Thank your for your article. Just so you know, the IPO is an organization of large multi-national companies and their large law firms who are backing the present push to change US patent law. According to most all other interested parties the proposed changes will weaken the patent system, not strengthen it.
Considering this, it should be no surprise to find IPO members don’t like patents -except their own. I believe the survey you refer to was only a survey of attendees at one of their recent meetings. Naturally, such a survey would be skewed and have no credibility. In a similar manner, if one took a survey of all defendants in current patent litigation you would find they overwhelmingly believe patent quality to be poor. I believe that is largely what IPO members represent.
regards,
Steve
Steve Wren
inventor
St Louis, MO USA
stevewr@synerty.net
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