I found an article about the 'Peer to Patent' project (by Andy Oram) in this month's CACM. The aim of the project is to ensure that computer-related patents are properly reviewed and stop the worthless ones from being granted. Surely a worthy goal! Here, a patent can be put up for a public review and experts from anywhere can submit 'prior art' claims etc.
Browsing some related links, I came across this, please read the patent excerpt there. I wonder whether all patent applications are written this way. Andy says in his article that a patent is supposed to teach you how to re-create its invention, (and also that the lawyers who write the applications often seem not to take this responsibility seriously, which seems to be the case after all).
Then no wonder it was Einstein who invented the theory of relativity, which it was once claimed that only twelve people in the world could understand. (No, no, no, I haven't lost it yet, my friend). For the forgetful, bear in mind that Einstein was a clerk in Swiss patent office at the time when he published the theory of Special Relativity. And if he could read and understand and make sense of these patent claims, no surprise he could understand and make sense of the universe too :-)
Anyways, the project seems to be a step in the right direction and I wish it best luck.
P.S.
Can patent reading be used as a kind of mental exercise? Can it be included in standard IQ tests etc? The project website will come in as a handy resource ;-)
I also wonder whether this language barrier (between technical and corporate people) will prove to be a show stopper.
Browsing some related links, I came across this, please read the patent excerpt there. I wonder whether all patent applications are written this way. Andy says in his article that a patent is supposed to teach you how to re-create its invention, (and also that the lawyers who write the applications often seem not to take this responsibility seriously, which seems to be the case after all).
Then no wonder it was Einstein who invented the theory of relativity, which it was once claimed that only twelve people in the world could understand. (No, no, no, I haven't lost it yet, my friend). For the forgetful, bear in mind that Einstein was a clerk in Swiss patent office at the time when he published the theory of Special Relativity. And if he could read and understand and make sense of these patent claims, no surprise he could understand and make sense of the universe too :-)
Anyways, the project seems to be a step in the right direction and I wish it best luck.
P.S.
Can patent reading be used as a kind of mental exercise? Can it be included in standard IQ tests etc? The project website will come in as a handy resource ;-)
I also wonder whether this language barrier (between technical and corporate people) will prove to be a show stopper.
No comments:
Post a Comment