Some lesser companies do little more than traffic in intellectual property. Acacia Research, for one, increased revenue more than 40,000 percent between 2000 and 2004 by acquiring patents and collecting royalties on everything from video transmission to bar-code technology.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office receives more than 350,000 applications each year, triple the number in the 1980s. To be granted a patent, an invention must be novel, useful and non-obvious, and not based on "prior art." But these criteria sometimes escape the overwhelmed (and underqualified) patent authorities, especially when it comes to software and business processes.
One fellow managed to get a patent for software that recognizes vowels in text. Microsoft wants a patent for a programming technique that allows a comparison of two variables to determine if they point to the same location in memory. Another outfit holds the rights to the electronic tracking of suppliers and their products, tantamount to owning a patent on the concept of supply chain management.
How Reasonable?
OK, so no system is perfect; the patent office notes there's a remedial facility for incorrectly issued patents. But is the very concept of patenting software and processes even reasonable?
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