This guy's invention got U.S. Patent No. 10 million; Marketplace, June 19, 2018

Kai Ryssdal, Marketplace; This guy's invention got U.S. Patent No. 10 million

"Today marks a milestone of in the American innovation economy. Back in 1836, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued patent No.1 under the current numbering system. It took 155 years to get up to patent No. 5 million and then just another 27 years to issue 5 million more. Patent number No. 10 million was issued this afternoon for something called "Coherent Ladar Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection." The technology is owned by Raytheon, and it was invented by Joseph Marron, a principal engineering fellow at the company's Space and Airborne Systems division. He talked with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal about his invention. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation..."

The 4 worst patents of 2015; Washington Post, 12/14/15

Larry Downes, Washington Post; The 4 worst patents of 2015:

"This was another depressing year for patent law, which long ago lost sight of its constitutional moorings as a balanced and limited source of incentives for innovators. Though Congress, the courts and the Patent and Trademark Office each tried in their own way to rein in a system widely-regarded as out of control, in the end nobody made much progress...

The polite name for such companies is “non-practicing entities,” but most of us know them as patent trolls. And according to the Consumer Technology Association, these parasites have drained over $150 billion from the U.S. economy since 2013, at a pace that is accelerating.

Beyond the trolls, there’s a more fundamental problem. The mismatch between expanding patent coverage and the quickening pace of disruptive change has become one of the greatest sources of danger to the innovation economy.

That’s especially true of patents granted for basic software and abstract business methods — categories that have only recently been recognized in the first place."