Mmmmm, Mmmmm Monopoly! USPTO To Hit New Record In Granting Utility Patents

from the rarest-of-circumstances? dept

Wed, Dec 26th 2012 11:57am — Mike Masnick

Another year... another record by the USPTO in locking up all sorts of ideas with patents. Yes, that's right, it's only early december and it's being reported that the USPTO will set a new record in utility patents, blasting through the old record, set (of course) just last year with 225,000 patents. Remember back in the early days of the patent system, when Thomas Jefferson ran the patent office despite thinking that patents might actually do more harm than good? One of the things he focused on was trying to avoid granting patents willy nilly since "abuse of frivolous patents is likely to cause more inconvenience than is countervail by those really useful." I kinda miss that Patent Office. Oh yeah, when he ran the Patent Office, it granted.. 67 patents over two years.

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Filed Under: patents, record, us, uspto

34 Comments

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Mr. Smarta** (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:14pm

Pretty much expected...
How do you think they keep their jobs? If they granted 67 patents over two years, there would hardly be a staff. Yeah, they're going to try and keep their jobs.
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Binko Barnes (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:16pm

Patents create work for lawyers. More patents means more patent applications, more patent review, more patent litigation, more patent negotiation and so forth. And who do you think runs the Patent Office? Patent lawyers, of course!
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[citation needed or GTFO], 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:18pm

it's only early december

Don't you mean "Late" December? Unless the 26-31 is still considered "Early?"
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Rikuo (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:21pm

Re:
If you'd bothered to click on the first link, you would have seen that the source for saying "Early December" was first posted on the 4th.

No, you had to try and be a smartass, but ended up failing. Great job you did there. *Insert slow clap here*
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out_of_the_blue, 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:38pm

AND YOUR PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION ARE?
Non-existent, not even a link. You should by now have at least the outlines of What I'd Do As Benevolent Dictator. But, no, just an offhand note with some mild carping. Geez, you're a waste of bandwidth, Mike.
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Rikuo (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:43pm

Re: AND YOUR PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION ARE?
So now you're saying he should outline his proposals for free? Sorry, could've sworn that was his job, that Mike gets paid to develop business ideas. Last I checked, you hated freebies...
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Zakida Paul (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:45pm

Re: AND YOUR PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION ARE?
Why do you always critcise Mike for being pro corporation and then on articles like this you come over all pro corporation yourself?

On the Instagram article you came down on Mike for being pro corporation and yet on the Hollywood article you were defending the corporate whores that run Hollywood. Why so inconsistent and even hypocritical?
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:46pm

Very funny coming from you ootb. You want to have links but when asked it is too much trouble to respond with the same. Until you can get with the program and actually provide links to back up your claims, you have no right imagined or otherwise to ask for links from others.

Have you considered a job as a comedian? You are seriously failing here at Techdirt.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:46pm

Re: AND YOUR PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION ARE?
Why do you always critcise Mike for being pro corporation and then on articles like this you come over all pro corporation yourself?

On the Instagram article you came down on Mike for being pro corporation and yet on the Hollywood article you were defending the corporate whores that run Hollywood. Why so inconsistent and even hypocritical?
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out_of_the_blue, 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:46pm

Re: Re:
@ Rikuo (profile), Dec 26th, 2012 @ 12:21pm

Re:
If you'd bothered to click on the first link, you would have seen that the source for saying "Early December" was first posted on the 4th.

No, you had to try and be a smartass, but ended up failing. Great job you did there. *Insert slow clap here*

----------
Mike wrote in present tense: "Yes, that's right, it's only early december and it's being reported", SO it's his fault as author, a sloppy one.

Therefore it's YOU, Rikuo, deserving your post right back at ya*: "No, you had to try and be a smartass, but ended up failing. Great job you did there. *Insert slow clap here*"

Don't you kids EVER get tired of lame ad hom?

[* I may start using "Right_Back_At_Ya" as moniker at times, it's become so frequent that you kids flop even when trying to be a smartass.]
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out_of_the_blue, 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:54pm

Re: Re: AND YOUR PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION ARE?
@ Zakida Paul (profile), Dec 26th, 2012 @ 12:46pm

Re: AND YOUR PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION ARE?
Why do you always critcise Mike for being pro corporation and then on articles like this you come over all pro corporation yourself?

On the Instagram article you came down on Mike for being pro corporation and yet on the Hollywood article you were defending the corporate whores that run Hollywood. Why so inconsistent and even hypocritical?

--------------

I'm not inconsistent: "the corporate whores that run Hollywood" (I AGREE with that!) have fair claim to copyright (in some reduced form), though I agree that they get too much for crap, so emphasis is on "fair".

So I'm not inconsistent, you're a moron who misses the obvious, cause if anyone here is against corporatism, it's me. I advise hanging 'em for crimes committed and to prevent future crimes.

Now that you're clear on the point, retract or prove yourself just straining for ad hom.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:59pm

Monopoly
The Govt is the ultimate monopoly, only govt can legalize monopolies: Health Ins exempt from antitrust laws / McCarran�Ferguson Act

Increased patents are just the canary in the coal mine for Big Govt take over of the US economy. Watch what happens when our new health care laws kick (us in the ass) in.

Who's going to stop them, you (look in mirror)?
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Zakida Paul (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 12:59pm

Re: Re: Re: AND YOUR PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION ARE?
And yet when Mike talks about reducing copyright or limiting patents you still think he is a corporate shill. Copyright and patents ONLY benefit corporations and lawyers so instead of making personal attacks on the writers perhaps you should be arguing for reduced copyrights and patent limits.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Dec 2012 @ 1:02pm

Re:
Comedian? Really? He can't get past obnoxious troll. How can we ever expect him to funny?
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Rikuo (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 1:05pm

Re: Re: Re:
So in other words, you've now hit rock bottom and the only possible way you can attack Mike is over an extremely tiny possible mistake of using the wrong tense.

Besides...Mike is still right. It would be a different story entirely if he said "It is being reported" about something from a few months or years ago, but start of the month is okay to be accurate when saying "It is being reported" in the present tense.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 1:26pm

Re: AND YOUR PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION ARE?
Yeah, I've never suggested any solutions. *rolls eyes*.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120712/18322919680/judge-posner-mission-to-fix-patents- we-have-some-suggestions.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/11245721156/some-thought s-fixing-problems-patent-system.shtml
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Dec 2012 @ 1:29pm

Re: Pretty much expected...
It would take a large staff to reject the other 224,933 patents submitted.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Dec 2012 @ 2:03pm

All imaginable inventions have already been invented.
Manager of the American Patent Agency Charles Duell 1899
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John Fenderson (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 2:04pm

Re: Monopoly
Increased patents are just the canary in the coal mine for Big Govt take over of the US economy.

No, increased patents are the canary in the coal mine for Big Corporations to take over the US, not Big Government.

As an aside, if we had to choose between those two Bigs (and I don't think we do), then I choose Big Government. It's easier to fix the government (who is us) than major corporations (whose behavior we have little to no say in.)
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Capt ICE Enforcer, 26 Dec 2012 @ 2:12pm

Patent System Fix
Do not fear. I have a perfect solution for the broken system. Which will only require 70 dollars for a dart board and a dart. Each day the patent office throws one dart. if he gets a bullseye then all patents for that day will be approved. If he doesn't then all patents get denied for that day. The distance will be set at 30 feet. But companies can invest a total of 100000 dollars to have one special patent get an extra dart thrown. and to increase their chance they can invest another 100,000 for a single step closer with a gradual increase in cost of 4000 percent each step. Yet never to be closer than 20 feet. Other companies can pay to make it more difficult. For instance Apple invest 6 million to have a patent for their new IROCK paperweight. Samsung not wanting them to have the patent invest 500 dollars to add a blindfold on the dart thrower. This would increase the difficulty to get the patents and companies will want to invest in New cool stuff. All money would be used to help families in need. and invest in educational programs around the US. You know teachers and computers for kids. Simple fix. The dart board may cost up to 3 million if the government tries to purchase it. So you be warned.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Dec 2012 @ 2:40pm

Re: Re: Monopoly
"It's easier to fix the government�"

Then PLEASE get them to fix the:
Fiscal Cliff
$16T+ Total US Debt
Debt Ceiling increase
$100B yearly waste/fraud in Medicare
Increased frivolous Patents issued - see above
Broadband Internet Monopolies (granted by the Govt)
$200B yearly waste/fraud in Defense spending
$1T+ yearly budget deficits as far as the eye can see
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/12/deficit-tops-1-trillion-again/1630377/

Federal Reserve $85B monthly purchases of US debt in perpetuity
-monetizing the debt
Tax payer loss in GM ($13B)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/26/government-recalls-gm-stock/

If you could stop even one of these, I would give you the benefit of the doubt. But I saw InstaGram get its ass handed to it by "the people".

Name one Corp action that even comes close the any of these atrocities�you can�t.
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[citation needed or GTFO], 26 Dec 2012 @ 2:46pm

Re: Re:
Whoa, chill! I didn't mean it like that!

I'm not OOTB and I'm sorry.

This is why I don't like posting in the comments sometimes. I could be mistaken for the other trolls around here. :(
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[citation needed or GTFO], 26 Dec 2012 @ 2:53pm

Re: Re:
I honestly thought it was a typo or grammatical mistake. It's happened before and I was just trying to point it out.

I'm sorry if it seemed like I was attacking Mike (although I don't really see how considering I was only asking a simple question), but I assure you I wasn't.
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John Fenderson (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 3:55pm

Re: Re: Re: Monopoly
I said "easier", not "easy".

Name one Corp action that even comes close the any of these atrocities�you can�t.

That's not even a challenge. I can give you a long laundry list of atrocities that absolutely rise to and exceed the level of what you list here, but I'll keep it to three big ones: murder (individual and genocidal), torture, etc. Also, many of the things in your list corporations are equally complicit in (or are the root cause of) -- for example, the waste/fraud in medicare, the broadband monopolies, the waste/fraud in military spending, etc.

In fact, more of the bad things that are happening in the government today are only happening because of major corporations who have taken control of the government. We live, literally, in a corporatocracy. We largely do not have a government that represents us. I advocate getting that back.

What I am saying is that the corporations have to go. They are destroying this country, and part of the way they're doing it is by trying to convince people that corporations can save us from the evils of government despite the fact that corporations are the main thing making the government evil. If they succeed in this effort, then this nation is done.
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nasch (profile), 26 Dec 2012 @ 7:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Monopoly
I can give you a long laundry list of atrocities that absolutely rise to and exceed the level of what you list here, but I'll keep it to three big ones: murder (individual and genocidal), torture, etc.

Ah yes, the big three:

1. Murder
2. Torture
3. Etc.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2012 @ 12:30am

Re: Re:
He's funny in the sense that getting a slap to the face is funny.
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anon, 27 Dec 2012 @ 6:30am

patents
I see a future where people will abuse the system as much as it is abusing them taking someone's patent and changing it just enough to make it patentable for there own needs, similar to apples latest trolling patent where they claim the patent for stopping a sim card from being inserted the incorrect way and a way to eject it simply by pushing it in further. This is a gross use of the patent system but it was awarded to apple, even though there are many many cases of prior art. SO when everyone is manipulating the patent system and using others ideas and getting patents for them the patent system will become useless, and boy do we need that to happen as fast as possible.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2012 @ 8:08am

The reference to Jefferson is a bit misleading in that scholarship concerning his association with patents is reported as later leading him to believe that the incentive associated with patent law was beneficial.

While I do not have "numbers", it was not uncommon prior to the Patent Act of 1790 for individual states to enact state patent laws and grant patents upon application to state legislatures. The 1790 act came about when it was realized that a uniform federal system was preferrable.
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staff, 27 Dec 2012 @ 8:10am

what do you know about patents?
News flash...one may not patent ideas.

Leave it to you to quote Jefferson out of context. In the early years the US was primarily agricultural. But Jefferson came to understand the importance of technology and the need for the country to develop its own technologies. Otherwise, the US would be dependent on foreign nations to provide what the US could not itself. Much of the arms the colonies used in fighting England for independence came from foreign countries as the colonies did not have the means of manufacturing their own or sufficient numbers of them. He thought so highly of patents that he encouraged relatives to file.

Further, as Madison wrote in Federalist No. 43 regarding constitutional rights of inventors and that portion of teh Constitution as proposed, "The utility of the clause will scarcely be questioned. The copyright of authors has been solemnly adjudged, in Great Britain, to be a right of common law. The right to useful inventions seems with equal reason to belong to the inventors. The public good fully coincides in both cases with the claims of the individuals."

Masnick and his monkeys have an unreported conflict of interest-
https://www.insightcommunity.com/cases.php?n=10&pg=1

They sell blog filler and "insights" to major corporations including MS, HP, IBM etc. who just happen to be some of the world�s most frequent patent suit defendants. Obviously, he has failed to report his conflicts as any reputable reporter would. But then Masnick and his monkeys are not reporters. They are hacks representing themselves as legitimate journalists receiving funding from huge corporate infringers. They cannot be trusted and have no credibility. All they know about patents is they don�t have any.

http://truereform.piausa.org/default.html#pt.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2012 @ 3:29pm

I note that the second link recites Mr. Jefferson's "taper" paragraph in his letter to Issac McPherson. A better link is what purports to be a transcription of the entire letter, http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl220.php

Per haps after reading the letter some might wish to reconsider many of the comments made in the "property" article published a few days back.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Dec 2012 @ 12:08am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Monopoly
You are completely delusional...if you think that destroying the next generation with DEBT is = to anything close to what a corporation can do.

You need to seek help for your BIG GOVT ideological beliefs.
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nasch (profile), 29 Dec 2012 @ 1:56am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Monopoly
What do you mean by destroy the next generation?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Dec 2012 @ 4:59pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Monopoly
Think what student loans in the US are doing to people now and increase that by 1,000,000.

The US Debt is $16.4T right now with 10,000 people retiring monthly for the next 20 yrs which will require an estimated $80T in SS/Medicare payouts. No one is talking about that...unsustainable.

My point: Only the Govt bastards can destroy the next generation with debt, not Corporations. Greece is a prime example.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Feb 2013 @ 11:06pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Monopoly
I stated: �Name one Corp action that even comes close the any of these atrocities(Govt inflicted)�you can�t.�

John Fenderson: I can give you a long laundry list of atrocities that absolutely rise to and exceed the level of what you list here, but I'll keep it to three big ones: murder (individual and genocidal), torture, etc. Also, many of the things in your list corporations are equally complicit in (or are the root cause of) -- for example, the waste/fraud in medicare, the broadband monopolies, the waste/fraud in military spending, etc.

Really, a longer list than Mao & Stalin, your Communist buddies? How about Big Govt Kim Jong il, savior of the people?

You are a Fraud�admit you�re a Fraud now to save yourself�
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