Is it Not Time for the Patent Industry to Move Into the New Millenium?
Kiwi Inventor questions huge discrepancy between copyright and patent IP protection costs.
Thirty years after filing for his first utility patent and recently going through the process of filing for a provisional patent for improvements to his BOX4BLOX 2.0 plastic toy brick organizer, New Zealand product developer, Peter Botherway is aghast at why the cost of filing for a patent is still so ridiculously high.
“It is absolutely mind-blowing, that in these day of the Internet, computers and 3D prototyping technology just how archaic the filing process and the cost of securing international patent protection for a simple invention still is, says Mr Botherway.
“The most frustrating aspect of the whole process is when you compare the huge difference in costs involved in gaining international IP protection under copyright law to that required under patent law, says Peter.
For example, if a song-writer, poet, author, artist, architect, engineer, or whoever creates a song, a poem, a book, a drawing, a design, or any other similar-type of creative work, all that is involved for the creator to secure international IP copyright protection in over 177 countries world-wide, is a simple online US$35.00 transaction to register a copyright of their work online at the US copyright office.
This simple process not only provides the creator immediate life-time international copyright IP protection for their works, against any part of their creation being copied, sold or used without their prior authorization, but this protection lasts for up to 70 years after their death.
In comparison, the approximate cost to a product developer to secure similar international IP protection for a simple invention under patent law in the same 177 countries will cost the inventor over US$2,000,000’, says Peter, ‘which equates to over 50,000 times more than the cost of copyright protection!
The normal patent process involves filing for an initial non-provisional utility patent, which provides the inventor interim international IP patent protection for 12 months, or up to 30 months if they time it right and pay another US$10,000 – $12,000 to get a PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) provisional patent, which provides them an additional 18 month temporary IP protection in over 115 countries.
During this time, the inventor has to invest in developing their product, taking it to market and before the end of the provisional patent filing period, they then have to file their non-provisional utility patents in each individual country around the world, at an approximate cost of US$10,000 – $12,000 per country.
“It is not only the costs involved in the patent application process, it is the actual filing process”, says Peter, with it taking up to 3 years for a utility patent to be granted and even when granted a non-provisional utility patent is valid for only 20 years.
The actual provisional patent application document is also a joke”, says Peter. “In this modern computer and Internet age we live in, these documents are still required to be written up like something out of a “Charles Dickens” novel”, with the patent office even still insisting product drawings be submitted in black and white and preferably hand-drawn”.
However, it is the industry’s total lack of acceptance of modern technology, like new CAD drawing with 3D imagery and the amazing 3D prototyping technology that is now available in the market-place, that is the most frustrating.
Copyright intellectual property law clearly states protection cannot apply to ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation or illustration and can only apply to works that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression.
“The fact is, 3D computer generated technology and prototyping now enables inventors to simply generate exact working prototypes of their inventions, in a fixed tangible medium of expression’, says Peter, “enabling product developers to confirm their product idea is economically viable without having to invest huge amounts of money into full product development and IP protection costs”, says Peter.
“This is also especially pertinent when you consider that the Internet now provides a medium whereby new products can be immediately show-cased to their target audience in every country in the world, making the idea of having to pay millions of dollars to register a patent in each individual country totally antiquated.
Unfortunately, the current patent system is totally skewed in favor of the patent attorneys and totally against the interests of the product developers and inventors they represent”, says Peter, “which is incredibly frustrating as there is no reason why the entire patent industry could not be restructured and brought into the 21st century by utilizing the modern technology that is now available.
By implementing a simple central international filing system for patents, similarly to the Copyright filing process, this would have huge benefits, not only to inventors, but to industry all around the world”, says Mr Botherway, “with maybe the obvious exception of the patent attorney industry, of course, which wherein no doubt lies the obvious reason for the reluctance for change.
Peter Botherway lives in Warkworth, in the North Island of New Zealand. In 1991, he and his wife Moira, then parents of four young children, developed the BOX4BLOX, an innovative storage solution for Lego-type plastic construction blocks that works similar to a coin sorter, automatically grading different sized brick elements by size, through a series of trays with diminishing-sized grids.
Over recent times, the BOX4BLOX has been manufactured in the United States and sold exclusively through Amazon.com. However, due to high logisitics and distribution costs, they have recently filed their US PPA for the new and improved BOX4BLOX 2.0, which incorporates exciting new design changes to overcome these problems.
Check out the new BOX4BLOX 2.0 design at www.box4blox.com, which will be available internationally through their new Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, commencing in September, 2019.
Contact Information:
Peter Botherway
Simplastix Innovations Ltd
Ph. 64 9 4223170 (NZ)
simplastix@box4blox.com
