Common sense patents

By Gary Forger, EXECUTIVE EDITOR -- Modern Materials Handling, 5/1/2000

It's always reassuring when someone agrees with something you've said. In this case, it seems that Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com agrees with my November 1999 editorial about the current patent system. Basically, we both think it's in sad shape.

What's more important than the fact we agree is that Bezos stands to profit handsomely from the current patent system. You see, he has patents in the e-commerce world. The best known of these is a method for placing an order with a single mouse click. Amazon has already successfully defended that patent, forcing Barnesandnoble.com  to make it more difficult for consumers to place an order on its site.

Bezos' wants to limit patents for software and the Internet to 3 to 5 years. Those patents currently have a 17-year life. He also wants a period of public comment on patent applications before they are granted. Now, there is no opportunity for public comment before a patent is granted. Instead, the contents of the application are held secret, in complete contrast to the European system which works just fine.

According to The New York Times, "the patent system is in crisis. A series of unplanned mutations have transformed patents into a positive threat to the digital economy. The patent office...has become a ferocious generator of litigation."

Even Q. Todd Dickinson, U.S. Patent and Trademark commissioner, agrees there's a problem and is reviewing the e-commerce patent process.

Actually, Bezos' ideas have merit outside the world of e-commerce. There's no apparent reason for not using that model for all patents. And there's one very good reason why it would have been nice if this system were already in place.

If that were the case, the Lemelson Medical, Education & Research Foundation wouldn't be going after hundreds of companies such as Apple, Motorola, and Mitsubishi Electric for using bar codes. The foundation, on the behalf of inventor Jerome Lemelson since his death in 1997, holds four patents for the use of bar codes "in the automated management and control of product inventory, warehousing, distribution and point-of-sale transaction."

So far, over $1 billion has been collected worldwide by Lemelson and the Foundation from bar code users for patent infringement. And it's all happened because the patents were under review for 40 years. In secret. Meanwhile, bar code use came into the mainstream and no one knew what was in Lemelson's filings. Worse yet, the threat of litigation is going to be around another 9 years.

Now some have suggested that Bezos' suggestion is no more than a public relations ploy. It's probably too early to tell. We won't really know until 3 to 5 years from now. If Bezos no longer defends his one mouse click patent at that point, then he's put his money where his mouth is. Meanwhile, it sure would be nice if this all generated real reform rather than editorial columns.