Hi All,

Before anybody else jumps on the 'bash the government employees' party train
I have questions:

How would you change the whole patent process thing to make it better?
         I thought it's purpose was to protect inventor's rights.
How do we pay for it?

I certainly didn't hire on with the Air Force because I can't compete in
private industry.  6 years at the University of Southern California didn't
teach me to be mediocre.  Heck, I succeeded in the nonprofit world for four+
years but maybe I'm an exception to that rule.  (I will neither confirm nor
deny the existence of 'driftwood' in the Federal System.  Those who know
know and those who don't know, consider yourselves lucky.)  Rudy didn't
intend it as a personal attack and I don't take it as one.

Let me turn it around even further.  The Air Logistics Center, where I work,
needs to hire hundreds of engineers in the next few years - EE, ME, IE,
CE/CS.  Entry level engineers with the government make around $28k, private
industry starts $14k above that.  We don't just need recent college
graduates either, the average age of engineers is 46.5 with 16 years
experience.  If you were us how would you do it?  Could you do it?

We have signing bonuses, we pay the moving expenses, the area is absolutely
gorgeous - a great place to raise the kids but no company stock options and
no quarterly bonuses.  If we had those monetary incentives our Federal taxes
(or the patent fees . . . ) would go up, right?

Hans

~~~~~~~~
Hans M. Hinners
Materials (& Process!) Engineer
Warner Robins - Air Logistics Center/Avionics Production Division
Manufacturing Branch (LYPME)
380 Second Street, Suite 104    (Building 640)
Robins AFB, GA  31098-1638
912-926-1970 (Voice) 468 - 1970 (DSN)  912-926-7164 (Fax)
mailto:[log in to unmask]





> -----Original Message-----
> From: <[log in to unmask]> [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, January 28, 2000 04:38
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: [TN] patents
>
> A little insight from someone who has been in the patent trenches, and
> understands the wars:
>
> First, remember that a patent is like a banner, telling the entire world
> the
> central, most important parts of your invention, all must be revealed, and
> nothing remains hidden.
>
> NOTHING prevents someone from looking up your patent, and copying exactly
> what you are doing.  (Except of course that it is illegal, and for many
> people, this is a detail)
>
> It is your responsibility to PROVE that they are violating your patent,
> and
> this can take years, and a lot of money.  Patents have been called the
> "Full
> Employment Contract for the legal community", and this is especially the
> case
> in the US.
>
> All of the above starts to make the concept of a trade secret much more
> appealing, UNLESS it is immediately obvious by looking at the finished
> product that your patent is being violated.  If your patent is simply a
> better way to arrive at the same product, you are probably better off
> keeping
> it a trade secret.
>
> Lastly, remember, the patent offices are staffed by people who cannot/do
> not
> want to be in the highly competitive commercial world, and the law is so
> arcane, and archaic, that it is years behind the rest of the world.  My
> company has abandoned patent applications simply because we could not get
> the
> patent office to understand the concept of what we are patenting.
>
> Very obvious things have been patented.  We have been sued over things
> that
> we thought were so obvious that they could not be patented.   In some
> cases
> two patents have been issued for essentially the same idea.  The patent
> office is not full of the brightest lights in the world, and NOBODY ever
> got
> fired from the government for being dumb.
>
> Rudy Sedlak
> RD Chemical Company
>

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