Patent Gridlock - The Tragedy of the Anticommons

I ran into an interesting post on Slashdot referencing an article from the New Yorker that fairly succinctly describes some of the issues I have been having with the current systems and methods we have for handling intellectual property here in the United States. For these kind of sentiments to show up in the popular media, especially outside of the community of folks actively involved in intellectual property issues, really demonstrates the severity of the problem.

To quickly summarize the article, the author suggests that the current patent system is causing an innovation 'gridlock' by encumbering new products and innovations with multiple claims of partial infringement by different holders of existing patents. Now in some sense, this is actually how the system in supposed to operate - if I develop a product that relies on some technology you have developed I am supposed to compensate you in some way for using your work. Unfortunately, because the USPTO has made a practice in the last twenty years of granting patents with increasingly broad claim coverage and granting rights to technologies that do not exist and cannot be built at the current time, the claims of partial interest are so complicated and numerous that the new innovation is doomed before it can even be brought to market. Thus the tragedy of the anticommons.

This problem is further exacerbated by the 'patent trolls' who file for patents on technologies they never intend to bring to market in the hope of extorting a toll on any company unlucky enough to actually bring a potentially infringing product to the marketplace.

I have a couple of suggestions to address this problem, none of which is likely to ever see the light of day. My skepticism regarding implementation does not prevent me from sharing them, however:

* require a functional prototype before granting a patent
* disallow business method patents
* restrict the scope of allowable claims to those demonstrated by the prototype
* require companies to enforce their claims in a timely fashion - if there is no claim as to infringement within 6 months of a potential violation that specific infringer and that infringer alone cannot be penalized
* restrict copyright to a 7 year term which can be renewed for another 7 years at a significant cost

These changes would go some way towards patching the current system, but it should be clear that some serious thought needs to be done regarding how we can fairly handle intellectual property issues in an environment that is, after all, very different from the one the current system was built to address in 1790.

Are Software Patents On Shaky Ground?

For those of us who work with the US intellectual property system on a regular basis, it is pretty clear that there are some fairly serious systemic problems. Interestingly enough, it seems that the USPTO may be rethinking its position on software patents, specifically as a way to discourage the 'patent trolls'. A patent troll, I might add, is the ancient and hereditary enemy of the intellectual property gnomes.

It looks to me and some others that there may be fewer, higher quality software patents in the USPTO's future, and from my perspective this is a 'good thing' indeed. The system cannot work when choked by an undigestible mass of low quality software patents, so anything to stem the tide should be applauded. It remains to be seen, however, whether these relatively minor adjustments will be enough to save the system. Patents on gene sequences, software patents, 'futurist patents' (patents on inventions no one actually knows how to build now but may be possible later), and more all raise serious questions about how and if a rational, fair, and efficient intellectual property system can be built.

New Tools for DNA Manipulation

This is a fairly interesting development - it seems that a Japanese company has developed some very small MEMS (micro electro-mechanical systems) designed to improve our ability to accurately manipulate strands of DNA without breaking them. Like many current systems they use optical tweezers to move the DNA strands around, but the novelty here are the micro 'bobbins' and 'hooks' that allow users to hold a strand in place and edit it. Kind of like a DNA sewing machine.

Infrastructure tools for the bio-design revolution - they arent really here yet, but when they are it may have systemic effects as profound as the development of the general purpose computer.

First Solar Thermal Component Plant to go Online in Nevada

Utility scale (>10 Megawatt) solar thermal systems are now poised to go mainstream as Austra plans to open a plant in Nevada to mass produce some of the essential components. Previously, most solar thermal installations (especially for utilities) were one-off 'proof of concept' affairs which had a generally negative impact on the resulting price per watt figures, so a source for standardized components is a fairly significant step.

As far as I am concerned, any efforts to improve the state of the art in thermal or panel based solar systems should be supported vigorously.

The Ausra news release can be found here.

GM Agriculture and Terminator Technologies - Another Blow Against the Third World?

So called 'terminator technologies', at least in the agribusiness world, are essentially those GM or genetic modification technologies that allow seed companies to 'improve' and patent seeds for specific crops. This insures that everytime a farmer wants to plant a new crop, they have to go back to the seed or GM company to get a new supply of seeds. This is partially because most of these GM crops are designed to be sterile in the field, and partially because intellectual property laws preclude unlicenced (non paid) use of any seed products containing one or more of the gene sequences patented by the GM company *even those grown by the farmer themselves*.

Now in the first world agricultural producers have for the most part abandoned the practice of keeping personal stocks of 'seed grain', or grain saved from a previous crop in order to plant a new crop, in favor of purchasing these stocks from commercial suppliers some time ago. So for these customers, the difference between buying GM seeds for the next crop versus buying non-GM seeds is a matter of degree rather than kind.

For farmers in the third world, however, its a different and more disturbing story. Most agricultural producers in the developing world rely on maintaining personal stocks of seed grain in order to minimize the costs associated with planting and harvesting each crop. It turns out that once they buy into the hype associated with genetically modified crops, it is very difficult to reestablish themselves as traditional 'seed grain' producers, and very difficult to make enough of a profit to pay for next years GM seeds. A disturbing prospect, and one reason governments in the third world are pushing modernized versions of traditional methods rather than buying into the capital intensive methods pushed by agribusinesses in the first world.

The Water of Life - Bacteria, Nanofilters and Filtration

The importance of clean water to quality of life cannot be overestimated, and as in almost every other area of human endeavor the technology used to filter water is undergoing a continuous process of improvement. Current state of the art continuous water purification is accomplished via reverse osmosis, activated carbon filtration, ultraviolet light, and ceramic and membrane filters. The new generations of nanopore filters which can filter particles as small as one nanometer are an essential part of 'ultrafiltration'. The problem with these filters (and membrane filters in general) is that they become clogged fairly quickly during use and must be replaced or cleaned with some frequency. One way researchers are currently addressing this problem is by inoculating the nanofilters with a variety of bacterial colonies which digest the various types of filtered contaminants, thereby cleaning the filters. It is especially interesting that this process is a closed cycle, meaning that the bacterial colonies are self sustaining and cannot escape through the nanoscale pores on the filters, and that the filters no longer have to be replaced or cleaned.

Hybrid technologies that take advantage of cutting edge nanotechnologies and biotech to accomplish tasks currently beyond the reach of either alone. Rest assured that you will be seeing more of these hybrid technologies in the future.

Aging and Technology

In just over a decade, a quarter of Europe's population will be over 65 - and populations throughout the first world are also aging. This article takes a quick look at how technology is being developed to ease the burdens and risks associated with age. There is a wide range of technologies that could make living longer easier, from robotic assistants (quite actively pursued in Japan) to better interactive communication devices that track location and condition issues and can autonomously notify caregivers of error conditions like falls or low blood sugar.

This is an interesting second order problem - as world populations live longer, healthier lives as a result of developments in geriatric medicine and aging research, technologies will be needed to support active and healthy lifestyles for this older demographic.

Is Intellectual Capital More Important than Natural Resources?

It is interesting to contemplate - has intellectual capital become more important to GNP around the globe than the exploitation of natural resources? The claim is really a twofold one. First, that the intellectual capital required to efficiently exploit natural resources tends to be held predominantly by first world countries, and therefore represents a hidden 'tax' on third world countries who require this expertise to take advantage of their own natural resources. Second, that *all* methods of wealth generation will increasingly rely on intellectual property and capital moving forward.

It seems to me that both claims are pretty clear - the first is readily demonstrable now, especially as China has joined the rest of the first world countries who have been doing this since colonial times and begun to make huge strides in using its intellectual capital to exploit the resources of less advantaged countries, specifically in Africa.

The second is less clear - it is fairly apparent that at some point in the future intellectual property, capital, and expertise will take the lead in wealth generation against the commodity markets. I would guess that this has not happened yet, although a study comparing the different contributers to GDP around the world by type would be instructive and might assist in predicting when this crossover point will be reached.

The moral is clear: build and protect intellectual capital and provide a secure environment for this process to take place. This is true on an individual, corporate, and national scale.

MagLev Wind Turbines

The concept of the magnetic levitation based wind turbine is a simple one. Vertical vanes rotate in a plane parallel to the ground surface and use electromagnetic repulsion to isolate the vanes from the hub instead of ball bearings, as well as utilizing electromagnetic coupling to generate electricity when the vanes spun by the wind. Benefits include 500 year operational lifespan, reduced surface area requirements, they can make use of much lower *and* much higher average wind speeds for power generation, and significantly reduced maintenance costs and operating overhead.

Of course, I am always skeptical of technologies like this until one is actually constructed. But even if only one or two of the claims of competitive advantage are borne out, this concept could still contribute much to the hunt for worthy renewable energy sources.

Death and Technology

I ran across this article recently, which discusses how changes in medical technology have had a historical and continuing effect on our definition of death. First we died when we stopped breathing, then we died when our hearts stopped beating, then it was the cessation of brain activity that determined time of death, etc.

While i found the historical perspective interesting, the more compelling aspects of the continuing relationship between death and technology lie in projecting this relationship forward into the future. How far are we going to be able to push the boundaries between life and death as our technological tools continue to improve faster and faster?