On Wed, Sep 06, 2000 at 06:45:40PM -0700, Trent Piepho wrote: > > The IP lawyers who run the patent office decided it was a good idea. This > way there are more stupid patents and more lawsuits, thus more profit for the > patent office and the IP lawyers who run it. It's a blatant conflict of > interest of course, having policy about something as important as patents > decided by those who stand to directly profit from those decisions. It would > be like letting the president decide how long his term is and what his salary > is. This is incorrect. The patents are approved by agents at the PTO, not by IP lawyers. The PTO generates quite a lot of revenue, but that cash is redirected by Uncle Sam for other uses. That is a big reason why the PTO is understaffed by mostly overworked and technically unsavvy people who do their best to handle the huge number of patent applications on ideas they often don't fully understand. It's amazing what kind of stuff gets through that office. I believe the PTO is about to get another budget cut, so look for things to worsten. -- Dave Ahn | ahn at vec.wfubmc.edu | Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Try to live your life so that when you die, you will rejoice and the world will cry. -1/2 jj^2