Patents: One of the Biggest Problems in our Economy Today

Current Situation: The Facts

· Patents are for the protection of inventions
· There are three thumbnails (criteria) for the issuing of patents currently:

* Need and usefulness,
* No obviousness
* Originality


· The Patents are all valid for 20 years, for all products
· Patents are only valid within a country, and it is very difficult getting a global patent
· Patent Committees are separate in every city and are not united internationally
· Patents are very bulletproof, and offer a great deal of protection, regardless of the product, and the demand
· They are so strong that the patent holder has monopoly over everything related to that product, and that nothing can done about that power
· Governments subsidize in developing countries


Problematic Areas in the Current Situation

· The ownership of patents have caused monopolies, giving their holders too much power, especially when there is a huge demand for the product (e.g. a wonder drug for cancer)
· The life of a patent is considered to be too long in many cases (e.g. drugs and medicines), and many cases have aroused where people have complained against the uniform life for patents for any products
· The monopolies caused by patents have led to products being priced astronomically high, and thus, lack of access to products by the poor
· Plagiarism and infringement of patents has occurred when patents that are only valid within a country, and those patents are being infringed overseas
· Improvement of a product from the previous product is a criterion that is not being entertained
· The world lacks an international committee that will manage patents internationally and efficiently
· Monopolies cause problems with subsidizing and product availability in developing countries


Proposed Solutions - Guidelines for Issuing Patents
·Our Suggested Base Criteria for the Issuing of Patents:

* Look at Need, Magnitude/Effect on society, and Usefulness: Does the world really need this for development and survival? Will it make a big difference? Will it really be needed (and thus used)? Is it useful to a majority of people?
* Improvement: Is the product and extension of an earlier product? Has it become more useful? Has it become more efficient/powerful? Has it become much better? Is it a new idea, or a copy of another product? Is it unique enough to be awarded a patent? If so it should include more features than the original product and it should be a lot more efficient version.
* The validity of the patent depends on the product and the demand and supply in the market. This validity period will be over when the company receives it’s expected profits.
* Have most of the other properties of the patent such as protection etcetera depend on the properties of the product

Note: Patents are valid in all countries, regardles of the country in which it was filed for

· Create an international organization/committee that is run by funds from individual governments of each country
* Funds will be based on the financial (developing or developed) status of the country-this will affect patent duration &price of product in respective country. ). Every country will be a signatory to this.
* This committee will issue patents that are valid worldwide, so that all international problems of the kind are eliminated
* This committee decides whether or not a product will get a patent based on the guidelines of issuing above.
* This committee can buy patents from pharmaceutical Companies (and companies for other products) -
§ To ensure that the incentive of companies does not die
§ To ensure that the product is available in the market at affordable prices of respective nations based on their financial development.
§ To ensure that the products are within the reach of developing countries by reducing prices making it affordable in local market.
§ Price reduction in a country is based on its GDP/development.
* This committee has a database of all recorded patents (patent profiles)
§ Will have a record of every patent under two categories:
· Valid
· Expired
§ Can use a search engine and can pull up patents based on properties
* Incentive is promoted through reward of compliance and penalization
* No Heirarchy, no permanent members like in the UN, all countries are signatories
§ Law is formed by “Law representatives” from each country, and each country’s view is entertained


This international patent organization will try to reduce problems as much as possible so that the patent directives are fair for both sides- business and ethical/social. It will prevent violations of international patent law. It will also provide reach of products to countries of lower financial status by differential pricing.