From Nice Post: "[o]f the last three million applications filed, only 113 were granted to entities who filed second but proved they had invented first."
Another meaningful statistic, especially for software patents, would be how many patents were granted for inventions which have prior art where the prior inventor has no intention of ever filing for a patent.
Rob Tiller has made several valid points that need to be presented to the U.S. Congress. From my efforts at lobbying Congress I came to the conclusion that to lobby effectively you must either mount mass demonstrations or hire a lobbyist. I think that the open source movement should hire a lobbyist to get our views in front of the House and Senate committees that create patent law. I suggest that the commercial open source companies fund the Free Software Foundation to hire a professional lobbyist.
I also think that it is in the best interest of the proprietary software companies to abolish software patents. Convincing the proprietary software companies to abolish software patents is a harder sell than convincing the open source companies but still its worth a try. Maybe some of them will see the light and contribute to a FSF lobbying effort.
From Nice Post: "[o]f the last three million applications filed, only 113 were granted to entities who filed second but proved they had invented first."
Another meaningful statistic, especially for software patents, would be how many patents were granted for inventions which have prior art where the prior inventor has no intention of ever filing for a patent.
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Steve Stites