2 ms·

Patent law should, but does not allow for independent derivation. It also fails to do anything about patent thickets.

• tsimionescu 4y ago
  Independent derivation would be the worse possible thing for patents. The ideal solution would be easing the criteria for obviousness, such that credible claims of independent derivation could be used to invalidate the patent entirely. Otherwise though, the purpose of patent law is to force companies to publish their discoveries instead of keeping them as trade secrets. If a drug company today tried to keep some process or substance as a trade secret, they would run the risk of another company discovering the same process and/or substance and blocking them from producing the thing they discovered first. So, they are essentially forced to publish it.