Rethinking Patentable Subject Matter and Related Issues

Abstract

There is a critical need to rethink about patentable subject matter. In particular, because high speed mechanization of arithmetic and the formalism within which it is practiced has brought about a sweeping change in the way novel and non-obvious ideas across technologies can be simulated, tested, refined, and patentable products and processes invented. The purpose of the patent system is to encourage the appearance of inventions in commerce that would otherwise not happen, at least rapidly enough, without patent protection. To fulfill the patenting needs of society in the post-industrial economy requires a reassessment of what is patentable and the likely human source of patentable inventions in a world where inventors, by definition, are a miniscule part of the population. This reassessment has become necessary because the inventor is no longer a gifted artisan, mechanic, engineer or technologist of eras preceding the mid-twentieth century but likely a gifted university graduate well-versed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in a social structure where not only higher education is rapidly spreading but is increasingly a basic requirement in the job market. The inventor is also far less likely to be a member of an independent team or an individual inventor but rather a willing employee inventor working for a company focused on building a patent portfolio according to a business strategy and to which company his inventions will be assigned.