America is the world’s innovation engine. The First Industrial Revolution, 1760 to 1830, took place in England. But by the time of the Second Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th century America had already taken over as the premier source of innovation on the planet. The modern world is largely shaped by American inventions, everything from Edison’s light bulb to the Wright Bros. airplanes to Henry Ford’s cars to the internet and Facebook have been brought to you by American inventors.
One major contributor to America’s outsized contribution to global innovation is our patent system, which is the strongest patent system in the world. The founding fathers of America were strong believers in patents. They believed everyone should have the opportunity to profit from their inventions, not just large corporations, so they put patents right into the Constitution of the United States of America. Patents were (and are) a great equalizer: they give individual inventors and small companies the incentive to invent as they can profit from their ideas even if they don’t have the financial ability or manufacturing capability to produce the products of their ideas themselves.
PACid is an innovation-based company. We come up with novel ways to secure data communications of all different types. We know our strength is in inventing, not in building products. Inventing is our focus. We either collaborate with others or license our technology to others. A strong patent system is what allows us to work this way.
And that’s why we are very concerned about attempts to rewrite the patent laws in a way that would benefit large corporations over individual inventors and small companies.
We encourage our readers to watch this documentary, “Inventing to Nowhere,” as it provides a great explanation of the dangers of rushing into “patent reform” that is designed to stop “patent trolls.” As Dean Kamen, an inventor with over 150 patents to his credit, says in the film
Solving the problem of these trolls by undermining the patent system to me is sort of like responding to a fire in a waste basket by flooding the building. It’s crazy.
To learn more about the film see http://www.inventingtonowhere.com/
