Hello BigLeagueSlider.
You write:
“I forgot to mention that back in 2002 I submitted a proposal to the California PIER EISG research program to study a VCR engine concept I had . . . .
Before submitting my proposal I had to file a US provisional patent covering the concept . . . .
If you're interested I'll see if i can find them and email them to you.”
Yes I am interested. Thanks. The e-mail is at
http://www.pattakon....akonContact.htm
As the Forum members see,
before revealing his idea / invention, an inventor has to file a patent application.
With the filing of the patent application, the invention is automatically designated (and protected) as “patent pending”.
“Patent pending” among others means that if a patent is eventually granted, those who were making, using or selling the invention before the granting of the patent have to pay royalties to the inventor.
As it is now,
the patenting system offers only two options to an inventor:
1) either to try to protect his/her intellectual property spending lots of money in a limited time interval (there is no return; by filing the first patent application it starts a procedure that ends either with some national patents granted, or with the loss of the rights of the inventor over his invention; worth to mention that recently, the “first to find” principle (i.e. the first who really discovered the new idea) was replaced by the “first to file for a patent” in the USPTO).
2) or to keep strictly secret his/her intellectual property and try to gather the required funds in order to proceed with the first option.
The PCT / WIPO is a step ahead in the patenting history; unfortunately a small step ahead.
What PCT / WIPO actually offers, for some US3,000$, is an 18 months time extension for the entry of a patent application into the National Phase in the various countries (in order to justify the US3,000$, PCT / WIPO offers – obligatory - a Search / Examination and a Written Opinion).
Suppose that the PCT / WIPO starts offering the following service ( let’s call it WIPO-Pat
No more than 12 months after filing an application for a patent in a National Patent Office (for instance in the UK-IPO),
and, preferably, after the initial Search and Examination Report (which, among others, reveals some weaknesses and proposes some corrections, especially in formality matters),
the applicant / inventor can pay a fee of US1000$ to the WIPO in order the patent application to be designated as a WIPO-Pat application which means that for the next 17 years the patent application remains alive, at a “non patent pending” hibernation, in the member states of the “WIPO-Pat treaty”.
No later than 17 years from the initial filing, the applicant / inventor can proceed into the National Phase of the WIPO-Pat application in a (any) country member of the “WIPO-Pat treaty”. Everybody in the country can make and / or sell the invention until a year after the granting, in the country, of a National Patent to the inventor for the WIPO-Pat application in question.
The “non patent pending” hibernation is the key point.
If, say, 15 years after the initial filing the inventor finally manages / achieves / decides to enter into the National Phase in a country and to get a National Patent there, the inventor is not allowed to ask royalties from the makers / sellers of his invention in the country for the 15 (plus one) years period. Only for the last four years (i.e. till the 20th year when the patent lapses) the inventor has the right to exclude all others from making and selling his invention in the country.
The WIPO does nothing else than publishing the WIPO-Pat application in the Official WIPO-Pat Database, which is accessible to everybody.
The WIPO already has the infrastructure to offer this WIPO-Pat service, even from tomorrow.
For the WIPO, the WIPO-Pat service means a huge income, without expenses.
The WIPO needs neither patent examiners, nor more officials for this service.
The WIPO just receives the WIPO-Pat application electronically from the National Office it was initially filed and publishes it in the Official WIPO-Pat Database
(there is already such a service in use; it is called WIPO-DAS: when a patent application is filed in, say, the USPTO and this patent application claims as priority an application previously filed in, say, the UK-IPO, the priority documents pass electronically from the UK-IPO to the USPTO through the WIPO-DAS without any cost).
In order the WIPO-Pat service to initiate, the agreement of some of the big Patent Offices is required (those of the big markets, like the United States Patent Office, the European Patent Office, the Chinese Patent Office, the Japan Patent Office etc).
What changes with the WIPO-Pat for an inventor ?
Instead of:
struggling to keep the dead lines and to find the resources / funds required for the entry and proceeding of the patent application in the National Phase in several big and small countries around the world (application costs, patent lawyers costs, patent translation costs, maintenance fees costs, communication costs, costs for the crosscheck of the various documents prepared in languages unknown to the inventor etc, etc; reasonably the inventor cannot help putting the development of his invention in the last priority),
now,
with the patent application entitled as a WIPO-Pat application,
the inventor can focus on the development of his idea and on the application of his idea in practice (by making and testing prototypes, by putting his invention in limited production, etc).
If things go well, the inventor has the time (and better chances to gather the required money) to protect his Intellectual Property in any country member of the “WIPO-Pat treaty”. The later a WIPO-Pat application enters into the National Phase in a country, the fewer the years the invention will be protected in the country (it is a motive for the inventor to proceed fast; nothing to do with the “dead line nightmare” the existing patenting system “offers” to the inventor).
If things go wrong, the inventor withdraws his project without collapsing economically.
Reasonably, with this “small change in the patenting philosophy”, the number of new inventions filed worldwide will increase dramatically, boosting the technological progress. The inventors will trust the patenting system again.
The above are advantageous for the independent inventors, for the companies, for the WIPO and for the technology.
In the end, what is the core idea behind the patenting system?
Someone thinks, for the rest of us, a better tool, a better mechanism, a better method of doing things, a better engine, a better vehicle.
Shouldn’t we give him the chance to focus on what he is doing well? (for our own sake).
Or should we throw him in the gears of bureaucracy? (as the patenting system does now).
It is nothing else than a matter of common sense and justice.
The patenting system is sick.
The above "WIPO-Pat proposal" seems a good start to cure it.
Thanks
Manolis Pattakos