Prior Art, Patents and Public Interest

Chuck Talk writes “There are some things that should never be allowed to be patented. That doesn’t mean that by themselves that the patent applications are a bad idea, but that the process is seriously flawed. For one thing, filing a patent should be a much longer process with a much greater risk to the applicant in terms of dollars spent, and public challenges available. Patent application fees should be entirely non-refundable upon an application’s failure. In order to assist the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in its efforts to improve its budget, all funds should be able to be invested in a interest-bearing account for the benefit of the USPTO, and there should be a much longer time-frame before patents are summarily granted, being at least five years. Further, their needs to be a public advocate’s office available to review all patent applications in light of the public interest.”