From the Nov. 13 issue of The Economist magaazine:
“Around the world, patent offices are being inundated with applications. In many cases, this represents the extraordinary inventiveness that is occurring . . . . But another, less-acceptable reason for the flood is that patent offices have been too lax in granting patents, encouraging many firms to rush to patent as many, often dubious, ideas as possible in an effort to erect legal obstacles to competitors.”
“In 1998 America introduced so-called ‘business-method’ patents, granting for the first time patent monopolies simply for new ways of doing business, many of which were not so new. This was a mistake. It not only ushered in a wave of new applications, but it is probably inhibiting, rather than encouraging, commercial innovation . . .”
1:12 pm on November 30, 2004
