[Stoves] To patent or not to patent. How about the 'un patent'

[Julien Winter]

Dear Richard et al;

I agree with what you say, and I have been working on the premise that
publicizing an idea, such as on this Stoves list, is a good way to make an
idea common to all.

The Stoves list has another advantage over patents, in that people who
submit an idea here have tried it, not the least because they don't want
foolish if they are wrong.  By contrast, for American patents, all you need
to patent is an idea; you don't need to have actually done anything, nor
made anything.  You can make "claims" about your invention that can be just
wishful thinking.

Patents or the Global Commons may have a couple of advantages over the
"Stoves" list.
1) publicizing may not be sufficient protection in some countries. [That is
major concern for the country I am working in].
2) patents supply a formal history of ideas; they are a type of publishing;
they are a searchable database, whereas lists like "Stoves" may not be as
long-lasting.


I am not sure that we need lawyers to write patents. (1) The biggest hurdle
to writing a patent is the patent search of the "prior art."  I have done a
fair bit of that for TLUDs, and it could be possible to maintain a public
bibliography of patents.  That would save people a lot of time, and would
be an interesting source of information in its own right.  Some of us have
websites which could hold the resources. (2)  I think we can help each
other here on this list by telling each other when we see a new patent;
and  (3) asking for volunteers to review our patents.

There is a cost to taking out a patent, but I have heard rumors of a Global
commons of ideas that is free.

Personally, I would rather just post ideas to "Stoves", but I think I am
going to have to help a friend with his patent.


Just an interesting side-note on American patents, and the lack of a
requirement for evidence that your idea works:  A couple of years ago, I
read a patent taken out by an American university for adding "a microbe to
biochar" ... ANY MICROBE to ANY BIOCHAR!!  There is an idea for you!!!  I
haven't followed up on this, but I suspect that they were trying to protect
the idea for public use, before a major corporation took out a similar
patent for profit.  Either that, our they were looking for a new source of
funding for the university football team.




Cheers,
Julien

-- 
Julien Winter
Cobourg, ON, CANADA
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