The US patent system needs fixing to the point that there are debates over just whose interests we should fix first. But no one seems any longer interested in the original idea: that patents protect the inventor-not a corporation-and that, by protecting the inventor, they encourage publication, accelerating the pace of innovation. So here's a suggestion: We should prohibit the assignment, the sale, or any other transfer of patent ownership, except for inheritance.rnThis change would not fix everything. But it would resolve a number of problems that corrode the system, and correct one problem that threatens to blow up the whole show.rnFirst, consider the inventors. Today, granting patents to the people who did the inventing is fiction. Unless the inventor is self-employed and not under contract, an employer gets the patent. This appropriation is poisonous in a number of ways.
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