Patents: The Bargain the Public makes with Inventors
At noon today I am to give a talk to the bright eyed and bushy tailed inventors of Bradford at Gumption for Business Link, West Yorkshire . These talks are supposed to be very upbeat and uplifting but sometimes I think it is useful to let folk know the very hard bargain that we the British public drive with inventors. This is a short extract from my manuscript: “If you can persuade us that you have invented a new, inventive and useful product or process that does not fall within a number of exceptions, if you teach everyone in the industry how to make or use it, and then pay us a lot of money we shall register a specification of your invention at our intellectual property office. Registration will give you the a monopoly of that product or process in our territory known as a “patent” and so long as you keep paying us a lot of money periodically, you can enjoy that monopoly for up to 20 years. We can’t promise that you will make any money from your invention. That’s up to you and your ...