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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday June 14 2018, @06:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-thorns-just-lawsuits dept.

Those interested in the patent system have long complained of patent thickets as a barrier to efficient production of new products and services. The more patents in an area, the argument goes, the harder it is to enter. There are several studies that attempt to measure the effect of patent thickets, with some studies arguing that thickets can ease private ordering. I'd like to briefly point out another (new) one. Charles deGrazia (U. London, Royal Holloway College), Jesse Frumkin, Nicholas Pairolero (both of USPTO) have posted a new draft on SSRN, called Embracing Technological Similarity for the Measurement of Complexity and Patent Thickets.

[...] The authors use natural language processing to determine overlap in patent claims (and just the claims, arguing that's where the thicket lies) for both backward and forward citations in "triads" - patents that all cite each other. Using this methodology, they compare their results to other attempts to quantify complexity and find greater overlap in more complex technologies - a sign that their method is more accurate. Finally, they validate their results by regressing thickets against examination characteristics, showing that the examination factors more likely to come from thickets (e.g. pendency) are correlated with greater thickets.

https://writtendescription.blogspot.com/2018/06/measuring-patent-thickets.html


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by anubi on Thursday June 14 2018, @07:35AM (1 child)

    by anubi (2828) on Thursday June 14 2018, @07:35AM (#692752) Journal

    I didn't understand it either.

    You know, we have countries that set themselves up as "tax havens" to attract the wealthy and give them an out as far as paying tax.

    I wonder why some countries don't set themselves up as "patent-free havens" to attract the manufacturing crowd?

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    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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  • (Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Thursday June 14 2018, @04:00PM

    by stormwyrm (717) on Thursday June 14 2018, @04:00PM (#692973) Journal

    I wonder why some countries don't set themselves up as "patent-free havens" to attract the manufacturing crowd?

    Sadly, it doesn’t quite work out that way. Say we had a country that was a “patent-free haven”, you’d be able to manufacture widgets infringing on any patents you like with impunity, but you’d only be able to sell those widgets locally and in other jurisdictions that likewise don’t recognise those patents you've infringed either. Once you try to export your widgets somewhere where the patents are considered valid, be prepared to get hit by a lawsuit. I remember a few years back there was a spat between Samsung and Apple where they wanted to ban Samsung’s products from sale in the USA [soylentnews.org] for patent infringement That would be the likely response against nations that try to opt out of this system.

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    Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.