¶ Patent
Index Entry
Patent:
"It is interesting that the Russians go along with the old patent idea. You can’t apply for one; the government simply awards it at the point when it comes into use. And if the invention is so good that it gets adopted within 12 months, they award a patent and a patent in Russia gives the individual the right to go into any establishment and look things over and see what he might do; it gives him the right to ride wherever he wants on the transportation system; it is really a more effective thing than what we have here. He gets a fundamental advantage and an actual payment.
"It’s interesting that the idea of giving inventors some advantage persisted from the old feudal monarchies through democracy and into communism.
“A patent in the United States is just a license to sue. There have been over 300 licenses of geodesic domes and over 50 have been too big, major corporations. Every time their patent attorneys would come to mine, saying of course we’d like to get around your patent but it’s too well written, so we have to come to you,… You absolutely have to have a world patent; a U.S. patent is useless.”
