Ethics of Inventing: Patents

 

 

 

• intellectual property that stem from the Patent and Copyright Clause of the Constitution. 

• seek to promote the progress of "useful arts" by granting inventors a limited monopoly over their inventions, in exchange for the inventor disclosing her invention to the public. The end result is that a valid patent over an important piece of technology is an extremely valuable piece of property.

• part of the law of the United States since the First Congress passed the first Patent Act in 1790. 

• operating under the Patent Act of 1975, as amended in 2000.

• Just a few years years ago, a patent was good for 17 years from the date of issue; today, a patent remains viable for 20 years from the date of application for the patent. 

Patents are important

 

 

• exclude others from practicing the invention (by "practicing the invention" we mean building, using, or otherwise invoking the invention). 

• a patent-holder is the only one that may use the invention,

• sometimes a patent can exist but, no one can use it. For instance, it may be possible to obtain a patent on a new method of making cocaine. However, making cocaine is illegal without a license. So, while the patent-holder can prevent others from using the invention, the state can still tell the patent-holder that they may not use the invention.

Timing --not like copyright

 

• Unlike copyrights, patents do not automatically come into being when a work is created.

• must go through a complicated application process, known as "patent prosecution," before the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

• Basic requirements:

  • First, the invention must be valid statutory subject matter for patenting.

  • Second, the invention must be useful.

  • Third, the invention must be novel.

  • Fourth, the invention must be non-obvious.

• LIMITATIONS:

  • One cannot patent "laws of nature." Maxwell's equations or Einstein's Theory of Relativity cannot be patented; "they are manifestations of laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively for none."  In addition, for some time one could not patent living things. Today, living things can be patented.

     

Computer Science and Patenting

• 1998,  State Street case placed patents for online business methods implemented through software squarely within §101 subject matter.  

• Amazon.com's One-Click patent,(questionable) is a result of State Street

  • In October 1999, Amazon.com sued Barnesandnoble.com for infringing the 1-click patent, and after a protracted legal battle, privately settled the case in March 2002

 

Can not get Patents

 

• laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas

  •  HOWEVER, machines that take advantage of those laws are explicitly within the subject matter of patents, as are processes for utilizing those laws