Patent abuse

Inadequate patent coverage
Inadequate patent control
Inadequate patent extension
Difficulty of patent application
Avoidance of patent restrictions

Nature

Patents provide ownership rights to ways of doing things. Lack of coordination in national practices for awarding patents may result in discrimination against foreign patent applications; and may also cause infringement, in whole or in part, of existing inventions because of the unmanageable problem of document search.

Background

In the Middle Ages, the concept of intellectual property rights amounted to an injunction by master craftsmen on journeymen not to use techniques they had observed in their apprenticeship. In 1790 the USA passed the first modern patent Act, France followed suit in 1791, and intellectual property rights became a European cause célèbre up until the middle 1800's.

Incidence

A controversial patent was given to an American for observing that a hormone that is already checked during pregnancy tests has a previously unknown significance. This information is diagnostically important and commercially potentially rewarding. The patentholder did not invent the natural functioning of this hormone; therefore it is claimed that the patent was wrongly awarded.

Claim

Patents, which represent the rights of inventors to dictate the use and distribution of their inventions, are actually little more than restrictive monopolies of private interest, which distort economic choices, hinder industrial growth, and are open to widespread abuse. Since every invention is based upon the evolution of wider knowledge within the society, why should one individual or company have exclusive control over the utilization of the invention.

Counter-claim

There would be very little incentive for anyone or any company to invest in research if there were no safeguards on that person or company having exclusive rights to use the results of that research, even for a restricted length of time. The abuse of unscrupulous commercialization of another's research would be far greater than the present so-called abuse of the patent system.