Yes, my friends, the patent application process has morphed and not into a butterfly, but into a giant preying mantis which can devour the innovations of the unsuspecting inventor in a single bite. Here is the explanation.
Do you remember the phrase patent pending?
The phrase was placed on everything from games to pharmaceuticals to electronic devices. Companies that applied for patent protection for innovations placed the phrase there while they waited for their patent to issue. And guess what? While a patent application was pending, no one, but the patent department and the applicant could see the patent. The patent application was confidential. Rogue companies who might want to steal the patent information or look for opportunities to develop work around solutions to the patent, were denied this opportunity.
That was a good thing. And that good thing has changed.
When you apply for a patent today, within a few months anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can view the patent application. The United States Patent and Trademark Office opens their books, and your patent application to your competitors and anyone else who is mining information from the USPTO. Every technology company in the world examines this information in detail. It is a big business.
Of course America can still innovate, but the patent application information is transparent to our competitors around the world, before the patent is even issued.
Patent pending has been replaced by patent application viewing. And to you readers who missed the point, yes of course when the patent is issued everyone can see it too. But that takes several years and by that time, competitors have learned from the patent and likely improved the process. The inventor may get the patent, but it's too late to practically protect it, all theoretical legal arguments aside.
If you are in the innovation business and you do not understand the strategic import of this change, then you need to switch businesses.
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