Patent Law

Presumption of Innovation

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

US patent rights have gone the way of "innocent until proven guilty" as our country plunges headfirst into a deep cavern of morally gray, with a permeating attitude of destruction over creation. The founding principal of making every attempt to protect intellectual property has degraded into making every attempt to control and limit that protection, while completely forgetting "to promote the progress of science and useful arts".

The presumption of innocence was once accepted as a foundation of our nation, with the idea that it is better for a guilty man to go free than for an innocent man to rot. Similarly, when our patent office supported a higher allowance rate, it was thought better for a few crap patents to swing through, than to unjustly limit the property rights of all. But as greed, selfishness, and diminished morality spread like a plague, we suddenly find that fear trumps liberty, that a man is actually guilty until proven innocent, since we ourselves are never the guilty party, and that patent rights are to be controlled and portioned out by the dropper full to those who sing the praise of the "system" and kiss the ass of the man.

In the words of George Jones:

Why can't we see the folly and the uselessness of hate
Love could lead to understanding maybe it's not too late
Then perhaps in His great wisdom we might learn to understand
Then there'd be no shame or sorrow and no selfishness in man

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on March 17, 2009 (boomark / email).