Greec and the United States -- A Shared Destiny
Mike Biras
The Greeks set such a shining example for the world that the principle intellectuals in the American Revolution, according to David Ramsey, the historian of the Revolution, thought there was an "emergence of an American Athens with the `spirit of freedom'.
Both Thomas Jefferson and David Ramsey believed that with the freedom of man to think there would be a flowering of creativity in all fields, economic, artistic, scientific and philosophically. Jefferson and Ramsey were right. This shining light of freedom for man began in Greece. The "Greek Way" has flourished in the United States and the world has benefited from our technology and respect for the individual. People have told me wherever I have traveled around the world that "you are so free in the United States".
It's true.
We are the only country in the world with a provision in our Constitution to protect the work of an inventor or author and give them the exclusive use of their idea for a certain period of time. Think of it.
For the first time in history, at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 man was given his God given right to create and own his own idea. That is true freedom.
But, there are forces at work to change this freedom. The fight over intellectual property, the patent war being waged in the United States by independent inventors and small businesses is at the heart of maintaining freedom.
The fight is between the transnationals and the independent inventors over the right to ideas in this way. The independent inventors fought publication of their patent applications at 18 months before a patent is issued. They would pay for the publishing of their idea for competitors worldwide.
If they were fortunate enough to receive a patent then when it issued a patent could be challenged with a reexamination procedure if anyone had "prior art" an article or something which would pertain to the patent that had not been considered in the examination process.
During this challenge the patent term would continue to run out, the inventor would be fighting for exclusive use of his patent (something promised in the Constitution), and the inventor would have a major drain on his pocketbook defending himself.
This is a reversal of taking a patent to the federal court where there is a presumption the patent is valid instead of a reexamination process at the Patent Office with a presumption of invalidity.
All of the patent changes being developed internationally are supposedly to spread technology throughout the world and specifically to help the developing world.
The big target is the United States with its 210 year old system, which is the largest and oldest in the world. The Patent Office is called the "Crown Jewel" of the Federal government. It is free of scandal. The Patent Offices houses the best technical teaching library in the world. The source of feeding that library is the paper files which will be eliminated once a new Patent Office is built.
Not understanding the true purpose of this wonderful patent system is a mistake. An example is the recent charge of the President of Amazon.Com, Jess Bezos, who was Time Magazine's Man Of The Year.
Bezos wants to shorten the patent term on software patents and invited public comments on individual patents on the internet. This is not the forum, nor is it appropriate to be discussing patents as they develop. This in effect puts an inventor in a ring with the lions of dissent tearing at the ideas. It would be too easy for an inventor to throw up his hands and say "who needs this, I don't."
The patent process is a private one of the inventors, his attorney and the Patent Office. Patent applications are secret; they are the private property of the inventor. If we descend into comment by everyone on the internet, then we will quickly destroy the freedom, the ideas and all the values associated with the system which has created this wonderful standard of living in America.
We are a can do society. Some things we do are profound, some dangerous and some silly, but ideas flourish. The Greeks taught us the value of being free and thinking. The men who fought in the Revolution understood and thought an "American Athens" with freedom to create and think was being established at the time of the Constitutional Convention.
That flame of freedom and thought seems to be escaping some of the people interested only in the art of the deal instead of the long range freedom for man. We need the voice of the ancient Greeks again. After all, they originally started patents.
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