Friday, February 15, 2013
6. Patents Across Borders
I have always heard about the different patent litigations around the world, between the same companies like Apple and Google. However, I have never connected the dots and realized that patents are not international but are only applicable within the country it was applied in. This fact was really shocking to me, as I felt that it was counterproductive for a firm that is international to file the same patent in every single country in the world. To me, no one in the world should be copying the inventor's ideas. I was really puzzled by the fact that inventors are alright with the fact that someone else in another part of the world will be able to copy their idea until I learnt that not every country has the right market and circumstances to use the product the same way. These differences can then prevent others from effectively stealing the idea. Having said this, I feel that there are still loopholes in this, and these will provide opportunities for people to 'copy' ideas from overseas and implement them in their 'home' country as their own idea instead.
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I agree with you. I was surprised to learn from class that patents are not international. I definitely agree with you that there are loopholes in this kind of system. I feel like there should be another international organization, similar to UN, where the patents offices around the world gather together to protect the innovators' ideas across the borders.
ReplyDeleteI kind of had an idea that patents were only legal in the country they were applied in, but it's really hard to differentiate who maybe controlling market share of a product. In the US, that one supplier maybe marketing that product quite heavily, but worldwide, their competitor would have a even bigger footing that the people of US would see even less to minimal marketing to buy such a product.
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