Patent Deform, Anyone?

Now for something completely different.

At the heart of this whole "Farnsworth -v- Sarnoff" story is the American patent system, which has changed considerably in the 200+ years since the Constitution first authorized Congress to protect the rights of "authors and inventors."  Now there is legislation brewing that would make the already crippled patent system even more agreeable to the Corporate Monoliths that Rule the World.

I have an occasional e-mail correspondence going with a fellow in Newport Beach CA name of George Margolin, who is an inventor and a fan of my Philo biography.   George is also a crusader against pending legislation that sounds like it will hopelessly screw up and already hopelessly screwed up patent system in the United States. The subject is apparently one of the first on the docket for when the Congress reconvenes after the holiday recess.

George just sent me this article from the OC Register that seems to offer a pretty good summary of the situation. 

The gist of George's argument is that patent (and copyright) law has been steadily "reformed" in such a way as to curry the favor of those giant corporations which now own most of the patents in the world, to the disadvantage of the actual "inventors" the Constitution was written to protect.

If you're interested in the subject, then you should also look up Thom Hartmann's book, "Unequal Protection," which describes how the corporate domination of America's economy stems from an obscure 19th Century Supreme Court decision that extends the "equal protection' clause of the 14th Amendment to "unnatural persons," i.e. corporations.

It would all make Mussolini very proud..