Lawyers and patents: coat-tailing on gunsmith's "Archery Hack" thread:

[230RN]

I guess that if I put this link in gunsmith's thread it would have started a major thread drift.

Georg Sprague Jeorg Sprave, the inventor of the archery device in that thread has been hit with a lot of suggestions that he patent it.

He does not want to, and made a video explaining why the small inventor should not patent his invention.

I hold no position either way, but I know there are successful "Patent Companies" out there which might negate some of Sprague's Sprave's concerns.

Anyhow, here he is on the "con" side:

https://youtu.be/OsIihrcqJYA

Any counters to his arguments?

Terry

Edited to correct name, change thread title.

[makattak]

I guess that if I put this link in gunsmith's thread it would have started a major thread drift.

Georg Sprague, the inventor of the archery device in that thread has been hit with a lot of suggestions that he patent it.

He does not want to, and made a video explaining why the small inventor should not patent his invention.

I hold no position either way, but I know there are successful "Patent Companies" out there which might negate some of Sprague's concerns.

Anyhow, here he is on the "con" side:

https://youtu.be/OsIihrcqJYA

Any counters to his arguments?

Terry

As with most of our institutions, it seems the patent process has become sclerotic from the overt influence of bureaucrats and lawyers.

We have a herculean task of cleansing the rot out of our country. I'm guessing that it has gone well beyond the point where internal correction can succeed though.

[HankB]

IANAL, but patenting something AFTER public disclosure (like a youtube video) can be very problematic.

Some companies deliberately disclose some of their proprietary processes somewhere, just to prevent someone else from patenting it and possibly closing them off from their own work.

Litigating a patent can be expensive - in a discussion with one of my employer's patent attorneys, he mentioned that the average cost to litigate a patent is around $3,000,000.