Reading 12: I get patents in theory, but the execution is a little off

There was a point in my life where I thought I wanted to be a patent lawyer. I thought it was the perfect way to combine an engineering undergraduate degree with a desire to be a lawyer. Looking back though, in addition to wondering why I ever wanted to be a lawyer, I don’t think I ever understood how boring it must be to deal with patents and other aspects of intellectual property. Although I’m not exactly sure if their current implementation and regulations are ideal, I do understand the reasoning behind patents as a measure to protect innovation. I’m not sure if patents (at least in their current form) are needed in today’s world, but I certainly understand why they were needed in the past. I remember learning in school about after years of work and innovation that went into making a product, it would be common for knock-offs to arise and become more popular, which lessened the incentive to create such products. That was the world in which patents were first created, and I believe that they helped a lot of innovation in that time.

Now though, patents make me a little more uncomfortable. I think that sometimes patents can stifle innovation, especially when they last for so long. One of the articles mentioned how any type of patent litigation can be extremely expensive, and I think that could make a lot of people be overly cautious of making a product remotely close to something that has an active patent. Additionally, especially with software I think it’s good to have the view that each innovation can build upon the work from before, and sometimes it can be hard to continue that building (at least without several years of break in between) in a world with restrictive patents. I still believe that intellectual property of some sort is helpful to society and innovation, but I would like to see aspects of the patent process lessened (in particular the length of patents and their restrictiveness over similar products.) I don’t think that creating something entitles you to a profit on the idea. We should expect creators to continue to build and innovate on their existing products to compete with others.

I was quite shocked to read about “patent trolls.” I didn’t know that such companies exist and although the one in the reading did not seem to be making a profit, I assume some must for the industry to exist. I’m not sure why patents can be sold and perhaps there’s something I’m not understanding here, but I don’t think they really should be able to be sold. If patents exist for a creative product or idea, shouldn’t the right to act on the patent only be given to the actual creator? I don’t necessarily know if patent troll companies are proof that the patent system is broken, but I definitely think that they are proof that we should reexamine patent laws in the lens of today’s society.