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Title    US Patent Office Grants Patent On Cure For Cancer
Date    Monday September 01 2014, @04:56PM
Author    janrinok
Topic   
from the terminally-broken-system dept.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/09/01/1458209

gewg_ writes:

Magical Drug Wins EFF's Stupid Patent of the Month

Last December, the Patent Office issued Patent No. 8,609,158 on a "potent drug" that "rebukes cancer, cancer cells, and kills cancer." According to the patent, this drug cures a litany of other maladies. What is this wonderful invention, you ask? It is a combination of "evening primrose oil, rice, sesame seeds, green beans, coffee, meat, cheese, milk, green tea extract, evening primrose seeds, and wine." As the patent's abstract says, "it works."

There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the person who filed this application. But the patent examiner could and should have rejected it on any number of grounds, including enablement, indefiniteness, and utility. Why would the examiner issue the patent despite its clear infirmities? The answer to that question reveals the fundamental imbalance at the heart of the patent system.

This patent's most obvious flaw is lack of utility -- there's no proof that the invention works. But the system places the burden of proof on the Patent Office, not the person asking for a 20 year monopoly. The examiner likely decided a rejection was not worth the effort -- frankly, we wonder whether the examiner even read the application.

Links

  1. "Magical Drug Wins EFF's Stupid Patent of the Month" - https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/08/magical-drug-wins-effs-stupid-patent-month#main
  2. "Patent No. 8,609,158" - https://www.google.com/patents/US8609158#
  3. "enablement" - http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2164.html#article
  4. "indefiniteness" - http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2173.html#article
  5. "utility" - http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2107.html#article

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