Monday, November 12, 2007

So, What Happens to the Patent Lawyers?

This is an interesting question. When we reduce the number of patent applications by three quarters, where do all the patent lawyers go? The answer for the best and the brightest is nowhere. There will always be a very competitive market for high-end patent drafting and litigation services. Perhaps even more so, with fewer patent applications that are far more valuable than the current crop. I think that raising the application fee to $50,000 will allow the legal bills for obtaining those patents to rise as well. I believe that this will be the end of the $5,000 flat-rate patent application drafting services.

What happens to all of those folks who are currently writing the thousands of patent applications for a single company? Well, they are already highly-trained engineers and lawyers....They should return to the workforce and do something that is productive. Like invent something!!! Think about it, we have thousands of highly-trained professionals working on patents that don't include any innovation. And then we waste millions fighting over patents that should not have been issued in the first place. Increase the fees, reduce the number of patents filed and we will see an end (or at least a massive reduction) in the waste.

No comments: