Re: IBM bathroom patent symbolic of US patent ills

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Jim Thompson" <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message

> Geeeeez!  I thought we were discussing patent law.  How did we get
> diverted to goofy-whatever-religion-gives-you-a-boner ?:-)

Our whole intellectual property system is pretty much upside down at the
moment, just like the credit markets.  I wonder if there's a mathematical
correlation.

My favorite patent story is still the intermittent windshield wiper patent
case of Bob Kearns:

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/02/25/005398.html

<<"I don't think the goal was the magnitude of the money," Kearns said when
the Ford case was ended. "What I saw (as) my role was to defend the patent
system. If I don't go further, there really isn't a patent system." . . .
Maureen Kearns said her father's home was filled with legal files. After a
point, she said, "his life was simply this battle.">>

It's been my experience that technically innovative people produce more
innovations when they are not locked into an epic, decades long battle
protecting the fruit of their intellect.

It's not all downhill for the little guy, though, and here's an interesting
twist.  Superman's copyright might be going back to its creator's heirs.
All rights in perpetuity were sold to DC comics for the grand total of $130
in 1938.  The latest film grossed $200 million:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/media/29comics.html


--
Bobby G.