New Column on HR 400 - Patent Sell Out.

New Electronic Design Column

Dear Readers: Those in Washington who are selling out our patent system to foreign interests are rushing a new bill (HR 400) through on a "fast track" basis. Because HR 400 will most likely be voted on before my new Electronic Design column can run, I am taking the unprecedented step putting it up on my page before it runs in the magazine. Here is an unedited preview copy of column #86.

John D. Trudel, April 21, 1997

Throughout our nation's history, the U.S. has done well at innovation. That era may be ending. At present, I am not optimistic about the outcome of the patent wars. It has been a long time since we had leaders with the vision of a Franklin, Washington, or Lincoln.

The sad thing about the patent debates in Congress is not corruption but ignorance. Oh, corruption is there. Great gobs of foreign money flow through the Commerce Department, and that's wrong. Still, what might do us in, I think, are our own outmoded tools for deciding "truth" - the single loop learning of the MBAs, lawyers, and flacks. "The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Patent Commissioner Bruce Lehman is telling Congress to vote for HR 400 because patents are now granted in 19 months. His false data is magnified and refined by the legions of lobbyists who infest Washington, then spoon-fed to Congress and the press.

Why worry? If patents really do process that quickly, and it may get better, then who cares if we publish patent filings at 18 months "just as they do in the rest of the world?" (Actually, they don't, but that's another story.)

The buzzword is "harmonization." All together now, in harmony: "hummmmmm."

Lehman's lies are clever, often containing elements of truth, per Western legal protocols. After all, it’s becoming an art form – miscommunication by bullet charts and selective facts. Q: "How fast do patents issue?" A: "Only 19 months, boss. No problem."

Still, any form of early patent disclosure can be lethal. If you rip a baby from the womb before the proper time, you risk its life. If you disclose your secret inventions to competitors before you have patent protection, they can pirate your work. If HR 400 passes, their lawyers can file "reexamination proceedings," delay you, and steal your work.

Also, averages can deceive. You can drown in a lake with an average depth of one foot. Actually, 19 months is not the time from initial filing to when the patent grants. It is the time from the last office action to grant or withdrawal, and only for the simple patents without "interferences" or "splits."

In today's world, many or most patents interfere with other patents and have to be re-filed, or are split by the patent office into multiple filings. In one infamous case, that took 43 years! The patent office made the inventor split his original patent into 30 separate applications. He spent his whole life re-filing and waiting.

Lehman blames the inventors, actually the victims, for causing long patent office delays. (These extreme cases are rare, less than 0.0013%. Most are caused by government secrecy orders.) Lehman calls these "submarine patents" and uses them, not his agreement with Japan, as the reason to destroy the best patent system in the world.

Believe it or not, his story is working. It gives Congress and the Clinton Administration the excuse they need to take the money and do what the lobbyists want.

GAO says that the typical patent takes about four years. The killer patents, those that start new industries, take much longer. A group of hall of fame inventors including several Nobel winners wrote to Clinton saying their key patents took a decade. He ignored them.

Truth is now hard to come by in our society. That's our own fault, not Japan's.

Next Column.

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