Eureka… the wheel

In 2001, patent attorney John Keogh, successfully filed a patent in Australia for a “circular transportation facilitation device”. It had a circular frame of strong lightweight composite material, reinforced with radial spokes and a hole in the centre to accommodate a shaft or axle. Sound familiar? Yes, it is a bicycle wheel. Yet, his patent (reminder: to qualify for a patent, an invention is supposed to be new, useful and non-obvious) was accepted and registered.

He did this to prove the growing deficiencies in the international patent system. The databases themselves are choked full and highly unsearchable. The systems of filing and investigating are hopelessly out of date and overloaded. And that’s not counting the number of missing documents from offical registries (now estimated to be be over 1 million missing files around the world). Of the 45 million patents around the world that have been digitised, only about 15 million have a full text version.

In a world where innovation is trumpeted as a religion, this is unacceptable. This creaking system will soon collapse, with disastrous effects on the world economy.

Or maybe, it will just prove the point that actually, to stay in the game these days, you need to continually keep ahead of the pack, rather than relying on ageing patents that bring in royalties. Keep ahead of the pack by using your innovation muscle to continually produce new stuff. Your competitors will copy you anyway, and do just enough to steer clear of even the most rickety patent laws.

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