Bonum Certa Men Certa

Media Dominated by the Patent Microcosm Spreads Myths and Defends Patent Trolls, Collectors

Nikola Tesla vs. Thomas Edison: Who Was the Better Inventor?

Reference: Nikola Tesla vs. Thomas Edison: Who Was the Better Inventor?



Summary: Popular culture myths, such as Edison being a prolific inventor, and what we all ought to know about an actual patent epidemic (vast increase in the number of patents granted, bringing the total to over 10 million in the US)

THERE are some famous myths surrounding patents, e.g. that they are a property or about innovation. These myths are perpetuated by self-serving revisionists. Even the USPTO joins in and spreads the mythology.



Yesterday, Managing IP was repeating that famous old lie that Edison (a patent troll) invented rather than ripped off and then trolled over light-related inventions. Thankfully, a lot of people already know the truth about it (we wrote quite a few articles about Edison being a troll about half a decade ago). "Since it was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879," Managing IP wrote, "the incandescent filament lamp had played the leading part in the illumination field for more than a century."

The problem is, the assertion above is based on a popular myth.

There are many other myths out there, e.g. that the more patents one has, the more inventive a person/company is. Consider this this article titled "Japanese Man Sets World Record For Holding Over 11,000 Patents" (infeasible for one person to even handle this many applications).

When we saw this yesterday we called it "proof that many patents are rubbish and meritless," not just because that shows a culture of overpatenting but also an issue pertaining to assignment. As the article reveals (below the headline), it's actually his employees who wrote the patents and then comes that myth about Edison again:

Even with a whopping 1,093 patents to his name, American inventor Thomas Edison falls short of being the most prolific patent-holder ever; that title currently belongs to Shunpei Yamazaki, who entered the Guinness Book Of World Records with a mind-boggling 11,353 patents on June 30th, 2016.


Guinness Book Of World Records.

Yes, they treat this as some kind of a sport now. In Sun, as some employees revealed under a decade ago, people used to compete over how dumb a patent one could get granted by the USPTO. They actually mocked the ease/simplicity of the process and just helped their employer stockpile lots of low-quality patents (now bought by Oracle, which is a patent aggressor).

It's sometimes frustrating to see these myths repeated endlessly in the media. The religion of "patentism" sure is spreading through the press and the only thing that stops such glorification of patents are negative-sounding labels such as "patent trolls".

Apparently, as Watchtroll said a couple of days ago, someone was so insulted to be called a patent troll that there's a lawsuit over it. A patent troll does not like being grouped/lumped together with other patent trolls, so there's a legal action claiming defamation. Here comes the myth of Edison again (first paragraph):

For the better part of the nearly 250 years of the existence of the United States of America, the U.S. patent system has been one in which inventors could be reasonably sure that their private property rights covering technological innovation would be respected and enforced. Giants of American innovation such as Thomas Alva Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others not only successfully commercialized their patented inventions, they also protected their competitive advantage by taking patent infringing parties to court. What happened to that illustrious history?

Constitutionally-protected private property rights have been under assault for more than a decade. Over these past 10 years, an insidious narrative regarding “patent trolls” has been allowed to infiltrate the U.S. patent system, a system which currently ranks 10th, tied with Hungary. America is rapidly losing its edge in free enterprise – seemingly willing to surrender all innovation to China instead.


That's that same old myth about China -- one that we debunked here many times before.

The bottom line is, rather than protect sole inventors the patent system now serves a lot of opportunists who invented nothing at all and oftentimes simply ripped off someone else (who could not bother with the patent system). Let's not walk away from suitable labels such as "patent trolls" even if the accused loathes such labels.

Recent Techrights' Posts

SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries