We build and create by bringing to the tangible and palpable reality around us new works based on instinct, simple logic, ordinary inferences, extraordinary ideas, and sometimes even genius. These advances, once part of our shared knowledge, define a new threshold from which innovation starts once more. And as progress beginning from higher levels of achievement is expected in the normal course, the results of ordinary innovation are not the subject of exclusive rights under the patent laws. Were it otherwise patents might stifle, rather than promote, the progress of useful arts.

Justice Kennedy, of the Supreme Court of the United States, KSR vs Teleflex, April 30, 2007.

Patents

I attach much significance to the development of patent (and related) law, which has lead to my collecting and writing more material than I've actually found time to organize into a structured form. So I've now (at the end of 2008) created a drectory to at least drop it into in somewhat more manageable files, if only to clear the mess out from other pages. Related mumblings:

Public consultations

… my contributions to them, and my comments on related matters.

See also


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