On Thursday, July 3, 2014 6:39:28 AM UTC-7, Cathal Garvey wrote:
-- OTOH, you guys are planning to patent, which confuses me:
https://wiki.realvegancheese.org/index.php/Real_Vegan_ Cheese
"We plan to patent and abandon to keep this technology free for everyone"
..it's cool that you want to abandon it, but isn't that what prior art
is for, instead? And, by registering a patent in the first place, you're
creating a disincentive to those who don't *know* that you've abandoned
the patent.
Worse, if the patent is held by a legal entity or person who later goes
bankrupt or into liquidation, the patents may be forcibly sold to
someone who'll quite happily use them to destroy others' livelihoods and
innovations.
There *is* scope for using patents in an open-source way, by using
licenses like the DPL that establish an irrevocable license for use and
re-use, but it would be my view that the stultifying impact of even
registering patents, and the absence of a "patent metadata" search
function for people to know that it's DPL licensed, still makes it a net
lose versus simply registering public prior art.
We've actually had some lengthy discussions on how to best make sure that this technology would stay open to anyone wanting to use it. Spurred on partially by not knowing which way the Muufri team would swing on this.
We have looked at the DPL pretty closely, and unfortunately the current incarnation is NOT irrevocable. So even if we were to enter something into the DPL, if we happen to go bust a couple years down the line and the patent falls into someone else's hands, they'd be free to close it back up again. Also, the DPL doesn't just exclude patent trolls and multinationals with huge patent portfolios - it would also exclude small independent inventors who own one or two patents and who are not ready to give them away under the DPL. If we really want to make sure this technology is open to all, I think it really should be open to *all*
Purely relying on published prior art isn't really a solution either, because having prior art does not guarantee that the patent examiner will even bother to do a google search if someone else tries to patent your idea from under you. It does provide you with ammunition to challenge a patent in court, but that's usually not much of an option for us small fry.
The "file and abandon" approach seems to be the best way to force the USPTO to actually see the prior art. Essentially, you have to go all the way to filing a patent application, and then you formally abandon the application. The effect is that the application is now permanently entered into the USPTO's own internal database, and that it *will* show up if anyone else tries to patent it.
The drawback is that you have to put in all the time, effort and money to file a full patent application. And then when you're ready to get a patent, you just tear it all up. So it's actually a much bigger commitment than just publishing your work on a wiki to stake your claim at prior art.
Patrik
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