Ecommerce Times: Patenting Air or Protecting Property?

Patent Office, back
when it meant something

Ecommerce Times takes a survey look at how intellectual property protection - often in the form of patents - is causing consternation among companies that would like to introduce new innovations to the market.

Even the Federal Trade Commission is criticizing its sister agency, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

"More patents in more industries and with greater breadth are not always the best ways to maximize consumer welfare," [an FTC] report stated, summarizing months of public comment. "Many panelists and participants expressed the view that software and Internet patents are impeding innovation."

Many commentators note that the pace of granting patents has quickened dramatically, with the number of patents issued since 1990 equaling the number issued the previous 200 years. About one in six of those patents are software and Internet related.