En bra bok om det amerikanska patentsystemet

Det amerikanska patentsystemet utgör grundaveln för mycket av de stora amerikanska företagens ekonomiska position i världen. Scientific American har en recension av en bra bok om det dmearikanska patentsystemetInnovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System Is Endangering Innovation and Progress and What to Do about It

The book describes how two seemingly well-meaning changes made by the U.S. Congress have engendered the current crisis. In what the authors call a "silent revolution," Congress in 1982 took what appeared to be the relatively mundane decision of assigning all appeals in patent cases to a single court--the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). Intended to eliminate "forum shopping" (the attempt by plaintiffs to find the most patent-friendly jurisdiction), the congressional move ultimately resulted in a court whose specialized nature tended to turn it into an advocate of patent holders' rights. The CAFC has issued ruling after ruling that sustains lower-court findings of patent infringement and has fostered the extraction of greater damages from defendants. It has even made it easier for a patentee to shut down a competitor's business before the patent is shown to be valid. And its rulings have held that software, business methods and certain biotechnologies--considered by many to be unpatentable--are eligible to receive patents.

Boken, som kommer att publiceras i oktober av Princeton University press beskriver den stora faran som dagens amerikanska patentsystem utgör inte bara för USAs ekonomiska position i världen utan också för världen som helhet. Patent används idag mer och mer för att förhindra konkurrens och t.om. forskning.