[Ferro List] Patents

[Keith B]

Present patent law has a number of perverse effects.  One not mentioned 
is to stifle communication.  The case in point is Stutz Motor Co., and 
it's the classic example given to pretty much everyone trained to deal 
with intellectual property in industry. 

An inventor tried to sell Stutz Motor an automotive idea, but they 
weren't interested.  They had come up with the same thing themselves 
some years earlier, but not used it as it was then inappropriate to 
their production designs.  A few years later, Stutz brought out a new 
line and used their version.  The inventor sued and won.  The court 
agreed that Stutz had invented their version independently, and had done 
so before the inventor suing had invented his, but that made no 
difference.  When Stutz looked at the inventor's offer, they had 
accepted a confidential disclosure and were forever then prevented from 
from using the idea without his permission - and that was true not only 
if they had invented theirs independently and earlier, but also even if 
the idea was unpatentable and in common use!

The result of this quirk of Intellectual Property Law, of which Patent 
Law is a large part, is that businesses which need ideas dare not look 
at most proposals or suggestions from potential inventors.    There are 
schemes to get around the problem, but they tend to be so convoluted, or 
detrimental to inventor's rights, that they act a a very major barrier 
to free technical communication.  Stutz could have avoided their problem 
by applying for a patent or making a "defensive publication", but their 
only other defense was to refuse to view the contents of  idea 
suggestions from outside their company.  (I routinely head any intended 
open technical communication with a specific disclaimer of 
confidentiality and proprietary claim to avoid causing problems and 
improving chances of opening free discussion, for just this reason.)

kb


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