5 ms·

This tier system would be gamed within seconds believe me.

achamayou 9y ago
You could at least charge substantially more for longer term patents, and use the money to fund looking into the validity of said patents properly. If filing long term bogus patents becomes sufficiently expensive and likely to be ultimately rejected, they'll probably become less common.
- mars4rp 9y ago
  then big corporations with money will have an edge over smaller companies to file for more patents with longer terms. do you think Apple with $30B sitting in bank is going to save on patent cost?
  - craftyguy 9y ago
    The cost could be scaled further based on company size/net revenue/assets. So Apple's $30B nest egg would make it more expensive for them to file a long-term patent than a startup with $30 in the bank.
    - achamayou 9y ago
      Well that would get played for sure. Apple would start tiny wholly owned companies or buy special purpose startups with only patents etc.
      - rdlecler1 9y ago
        That could be taken into consideration.
        darawk 9y ago
        Not reliably. International corporate ownership is very complex. And consider the following: Apple instructs one of its employees to quit and start a new company. That company files the patent and gets it approved for cheap. Apple buys the company the next day. It's very hard to create a system here that's not readily gameable.
      - craftyguy 9y ago
        Patents need to be renewed when the entity that owns them no longer exists (e.g. acquired). If they are not renewed, then they expire and become public domain.
        ribosometronome 9y ago
        Tebahpla, Inc -- a small company with 3 employees a gross yearly income of ~450k files for a patent and gets it granted for 20 years. Tebahpla then licenses that patent only to Google, for 20 years, for $10 a year.
        craftyguy 9y ago
        damn, this is going to be harder than I thought.
  - achamayou 9y ago
    That’s already true now though. If the startup can take a cheap short patent and renew it later once they’ve made money, it doesn’t sound too bad to me.

You could at least charge substantially more for longer term patents, and use the money to fund looking into the validity of said patents properly. If filing long term bogus patents becomes sufficiently expensive and likely to be ultimately rejected, they'll probably become less common.

mars4rp 9y ago
then big corporations with money will have an edge over smaller companies to file for more patents with longer terms. do you think Apple with $30B sitting in bank is going to save on patent cost?
- craftyguy 9y ago
  The cost could be scaled further based on company size/net revenue/assets. So Apple's $30B nest egg would make it more expensive for them to file a long-term patent than a startup with $30 in the bank.
  - achamayou 9y ago
    Well that would get played for sure. Apple would start tiny wholly owned companies or buy special purpose startups with only patents etc.
    - rdlecler1 9y ago
      That could be taken into consideration.
      - darawk 9y ago
        Not reliably. International corporate ownership is very complex. And consider the following: Apple instructs one of its employees to quit and start a new company. That company files the patent and gets it approved for cheap. Apple buys the company the next day. It's very hard to create a system here that's not readily gameable.
    - craftyguy 9y ago
      Patents need to be renewed when the entity that owns them no longer exists (e.g. acquired). If they are not renewed, then they expire and become public domain.
      - ribosometronome 9y ago
        Tebahpla, Inc -- a small company with 3 employees a gross yearly income of ~450k files for a patent and gets it granted for 20 years. Tebahpla then licenses that patent only to Google, for 20 years, for $10 a year.
        craftyguy 9y ago
        damn, this is going to be harder than I thought.
- achamayou 9y ago
  That’s already true now though. If the startup can take a cheap short patent and renew it later once they’ve made money, it doesn’t sound too bad to me.