Re: The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) IS THE PROBLEM!
"Much simpler fix, When a patent is granted the company has to produce and sell products that utilise the patent, after a 2 year period after manufacturing has stopped, they loose rights to the patent, and it becomes free for all to use."
Simpler? I can already see a couple of loopholes. Solutions welcome.
1) As written, a patent holder could produce minimal quantities of the patented item (e.g., 1 item per 2 years), and sell it to themselves for a penny each. Outcome: Perpetual patents. If perpetual patents are a problem, obvious solutions involve defining production and sales requirements. But the requirements might deter John Doe, an inventor working in his garage, from squatting on his idle patents is still trivial for Apple. Then you get into sliding scales of production and sales requirements by patent holder income. The regulations are unlikely to be simple, unless I'm missing a trick - which is entirely possible.
2) Production and sales interference. If Apple decides it doesn't like John "Garage Inventor" Doe's competition, or decides it wants John Doe's patent for less than the $5 bajillion John is demanding, then it can try to interfere with production and sales. It might buy necessary components or discourage suppliers from selling to John, and it might tell major vendors of Apple goods that its sales will go elsewhere if they carry Doe goods. As a simpler end run, it might just sue John Doe for patent infringement and tie him up in court for two years until his patent expires. The regulations to prevent abuse of this sort are unlikely to be simple though, again, I might be missing something.
I like the basic premise of "use it or lose it" patents, but I don't think it'd be simple to implement.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
