Re: Licensing patents without reading them, that is a good enough cause to get fired, would you not say?
If it's that simple, it is. But are there not issues of scope that can make it difficult to determine where the limits of the patent's applicability lie?
I have some involvement with patents and copyrights at work, though my experience with hardware is limited to evaluating components that are integrated into systems.
Lately, though, I have to spend a substantial amount of time copywriting, or, as in the most recent headache, patenting, work I do or manage. Our legal department says that if we don't copyright or patent our work (depending on what that work consists of) some other individual or corporate entity will, and then deny us the right to distribute our work without paying them, and restrict our right to develop extensions to our work.
I work at a Federal facility, so there is no issue of profits or markets. What we create, is made available to anyone who needs it. The amount of time that must be spent on legal BS is increasing steadily and it is interfering with real work. The things we have to get patents on are absurd and (as you can probably tell) I am disgusted with the process.
Regards,
(I know it's not your fault, and I know that a good patent system isn't just beneficial but necessary to encourage development - but I think things have gotten out of hand)
Dan |
