Putting Ideas And Inventions Into Public Domain
A few months back, we wondered why it was so difficult to opt out of copyright.
Soon after that, Creative Commons added its CC0 license, which gets you a long way towards putting your content in the public domain (there are a few issues related to it, but it’s better than nothing).
With patents, the issue isn’t quite the same. With copyright, you’re automatically given a copyright on creative works. Obviously, that’s not the case with patents.
However, people have wondered how they can put their invention in the public domain, such that (a) others can benefit from it and (b) it prevents others from patenting it at a later date.
Tragically, the US Patent Office tends to look pretty narrowly at what counts as prior art and requires that the information be “published,” (something that is also defined very narrowly) so simply declaring an invention to be in the public domain isn’t always good enough to prevent others from making a claim on it.
Photo by wpcsg.com.
Jaclyn on May 1st, 2009 8:38 am
It seems as though the process of patents can be a very sticky situation. I think as time goes by they should automatically review their guidelines and stipulations and update where possible in order to make the process go smoother for people.
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