Patent Conspiracy

What happens when an oil company buys a carborator patent that improves fuel economy and then shelves it and prevents its use. I am a supporter of free market economy but there is a problem when it comes to patents.
When I was a kid my Grandpa used to sell bottles of fuel additive that improved gas mileage. He sold it like crazy because people saved money by using it. Then one day an oil company bought the producer of the additive and took it off the market.
I believe that patent rights should be lost to the patent holder if they do not produce something from it within a couple of years.

Purchase the rights/patent ... shelf it. It wouldn't be the first time for such.

Better yet ...
Find a means to claim it under the national security classification, and you can be virtually assured it'll never see the light of day. (?) Though, there are the occasional night visions.


Good luck on the "patent expiration due to lack of promotion thereof" concept. Valiant ideals, nonetheless.


 


 

Originally posted by 12m8keall2c
Better yet ...
Find a means to claim it under the national security classification, and you can be virtually assured it'll never see the light of day.

Good point, we have all heard of this but I forgot to put it in the original post.

You should be aware that the Patent Office has a program, that anyone can subscribe to, which notifies the subscriber when anyone is trying to get a patent on the technology category they are interested in. You can bet 'vested interest' subscribes to this service. So the inventor notifies the sharks, that he's ready to be eaten, by filing for a patent.

Source.

One thing that can happen is that the original inventor goes out, makes just enough changes to his design to avoid patent infringement (sometimes, not very many at all), and sells the new design to Toyota or GM or Honda or (insert corporation here).

Let me guess...there's a super-duper ultra carb out there that can let a standard V-8 get almost 100mpg, but BigOilCo has the patent under lock and key because they want to keep selling gas?

Originally posted by Brother Stormhammer
Let me guess...there's a super-duper ultra carb out there that can let a standard V-8 get almost 100mpg, but BigOilCo has the patent under lock and key because they want to keep selling gas?

It is not just by owning patents, it is by influencing the automotive industry. It is not a stretch of the imagination to assume that large oil companies could afford to own enough stock in automotive manufacturers to influence they type of cars they study and produce.
See ,Who Killed The Electric Car.