By Joseph N. Hosteny of Niro, Scavone, Haller & NiroRegular IP Today columnist Joseph N. Hosteny is an intellectual property litigation attorney with the Chicago law firm of Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro. A Registered Professional Engineer and former Assistant US Attorney, his articles have also appeared in Corporate Counsel Magazine, The Docket (American Corporate Counsel Association), American Medical News, Inventors’ Digest, Litigation Magazine and Assembly Engineering Magazine. Mr. Hosteny can be reached at (312) 236-0733, or by e-mail at jhosteny@hosteny.com, or by visiting his web site at http://www.hosteny.com.
This article was originally published in our September 2007 issue.
The general counsel of Intel, a giant in an industry that was founded on the creativity of
a few individuals, bemoans what has become of our patent system in recent years. In an article entitled "Patent
Nonsense," appearing in The Wall Street Journal on July 12, Bruce Sewell reiterates every possible canard
about patents, and about the patent system.
He claims the patent system of the United States "favors speculators over innovators." Mr.
Sewell, who has a bachelor's degree in psychology, doesn't know what he is talking about. In fact, the largest
users of the patent system here aren't individuals or speculators. The largest users are corporations -- both
foreign and domestic -- and universities. According to a quick search on the PTO website, Intel itself has just
over fourteen thousand patents, in the United States alone. The most recent Intel patent issued on August 7,
just one day before this column was written. If, as Mr. Sewell says, the patent system is "impeding innovation
and economic growth," his employer hasn't seemed to notice.
The U.S. patent system is overwhelmingly dominated by Intel and other giant corporations -
not by individuals. According to "Patenting by Organizations 2003," published by the Patent Office in August,
2004, U.S. corporations obtained over seventy-...
