Recently, John developed a proposal for reforming the patent system. It’s called Patent Durability, and it proposes allowing inventors to tailor their patent protection, and pay fees in accordance with the protection they choose. In today’s system, indigent inventors often complain about the costs of procuring and enforcing a patent, while inventors of lucrative inventions complain that the system is unreliable. Patent Durability solves these problems by creating more trust between inventors and users of their technology. In turn, inventors would be able to realize more money for their inventive efforts, as significant amounts of waste would be removed from the system. It would do this by giving inventors bargaining power (e.g., CHOICE) when they protect themselves, something today’s system does not.
For example, in today’s system, all utility patents offer the exact same protections and cost roughly the exact same amount to procure, depending on which attorney or agent is used. As some of John’s clients have told him that their inventions are worth $500,000 and some have told him that their inventions are worth $5 billion, he wanted to do something so that they could each get and pay for an appropriate level of protection. He wrote eight articles (see links below) summarizing the proposal. Four of them were published in IP Watchdog, two in LAW 360, and two more in Inventor’s Digest magazine. Although this proposal would admittedly take a massive movement to implement, if you are an inventor, John would love your feedback on what he came up with. He’d also love it if you told your lawmakers and other Government officials about the proposal. Finally, if you would like for John to speak or participate in a podcast on the proposal, send him an email (JOHN@POWERSIPLAW.COM) to chat about it.
FIRST ARTICLE (IP Watchdog): Patent Durability: Building a Better Fence (Text Copyright © TXu 2-239-233, TXu 2-335-187, TXu 2-336-858, John P. Powers, 2021-2022, all rights reserved).
SECOND ARTICLE (IP Watchdog): A Follow Up on ‘Patent Durability’: A Way to Ensure Just Compensation for Inventors (Text Copyright © TXu 2-360-236, John P. Powers, 2023, all rights reserved).
THIRD ARTICLE (IP Watchdog): To Make the U.S. Patent System More Efficient, Let’s Obviate Obviousness (Text Copyright © TXu 2-379-554, John P. Powers, 2023, all rights reserved).
FOURTH ARTICLE (LAW 360): Alternative Patents Would Solve Many Inventor Woes (Text Copyright © TX 9-334-322, John P. Powers, 2023, all rights reserved).
FIFTH ARTICLE (Inventor’s Digest): We Need Tailored Patents: Patent Durability Would Fix the One-Sized-Fits-All System for Insuring Inventors (Text Copyright © TXu 2-433-989, John P. Powers, 2024, all rights reserved).
SIXTH ARTICLE (Inventor’s Digest): Two Part Patent Reform – THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR A PILOT PROGRAM THAT COULD EQUALLY PROTECT ALL INVENTORS (Text Copyright © TXu 2-450-713, John P. Powers, 2024, all rights reserved).
SEVENTH ARTICLE (IP Watchdog): Why the DOGE Should Take Aim at the USPTO (Text Copyright © TXu 2-467-500, John P. Powers, 2025, all rights reserved).
EIGHTH ARTICLE (LAW 360): DOGE Should Address Inefficiency In The Patent Marketplace (Text Copyright © TX 9-474-878, John P. Powers, 2025, all rights reserved).