ST. Louis, Mo./EWORLDWIRE/Oct. 10, 2007 --- New Patent Office rules taking effect November 1 would have barred many patents of America's most famous inventor. Under the new rules, patent applications are limited to five independent claims and 25 total claims. The famous inventor amassed 394 patents with more than 5 independent claims, 21 of which had more than 25 total claims. The new rules also require filing statements about co-pending patent applications each time an application is filed. The famous inventor would have had to file 7,326 separate statements about co-pending applications. Under the new rules that inventor would also have been required to file 243 disclaimers or explanations for applications filed on the same day with the exact same title. This inventor obtained more than three patents with identical titles 67 times - once obtaining 37 different patents with the exact same title for a total of 188 claims; 286 times he obtained patents with the same titles with more than 15 total independent claims and 53 times he obtained patents with the same titles with more than 75 total claims, which will be nearly impossible under the new rules.Thank goodness that the Patent Office has put a stop to the likes of Thomas Alva Edison.
These figures don't include applications Edison filed that did not issue or the rejected claims in the patents that did issue; even with a lot more work Edison probably could not have obtained equivalent protection. Because he violated the 5/25 rule on at least 394 occasions he would have had to file and prosecute at least that many more applications. In addition he would also have had to file 7,326 statements, as many as 72 on a single day, and 243 terminal disclaimers or explanations. He doubtless would have lost at least some of his protection in the 67 instances where he had four or more patents with the same title, in the 286 patents in patent families where the total number of independent claims exceeded 15 and in the 53 patents in patent families where the total number of claims exceeded 75. Destroying the incentive to invent such trifles as the electric lamp, the stock ticker, the phonograph and movies is a small price to pay for the convenience of the Patent and Trademark Office.
Undoubtedly the Patent and Trademark Office will remove the 2108 references on its web site to Edison, now that it has identified him as a serial patent abuser.
A copy of the spreadsheet from which these figures were obtained is available at no charge at 'http://www.legalmetric.com' under the Resources section (click on Edison Patent Spreadsheet).
For further information on this release contact:
Greg Upchurch
Director of Research
LegalMetric, LLC
greg@legalmetric.com
1-888-309-3001, ext. 12
http://www.legalmetric.com
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