tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post8327888021053195031..comments2024-03-28T13:45:42.289+00:00Comments on The IPKat: Do more equal societies produce more patents?Verónica RodrÃguez Arguijohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05763207846940036921noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-88784989489474562612010-02-02T13:38:40.101+00:002010-02-02T13:38:40.101+00:00David, I think you need to qualify your comment wi...David, I think you need to qualify your comment with "in the UK". NZers, for example, do generally speak English, even if it is not the kind of English you speak. In NZ, in my experience, patent people say (or said; I've been out of the country for 10 years) pay-tent, not pat-ent. I suspect few Indian patent attorneys would say it he "American" way too because of the general conservative nature of Indian English.<br /><br />As an aside, I personally find the argument that it "should" be pronounced pat-ent because of way "patens" was (assumed to be) pronounced 2000 years ago to be completely bizarre. Languages evolve, dialects even more so. On that basis we "should" pronounce "novel" as "no-wellus".Luke Ueda-Sarsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-72997171580564291142010-02-02T08:31:04.021+00:002010-02-02T08:31:04.021+00:00I was amused by your comment, Derek. Whether or n...I was amused by your comment, Derek. Whether or not it used to be the 'educated' way to pronounce 'patent' in the way you say, the usual way now, at least according to every patent attorney I have ever spoken to, is the same as the American way.David Pearcehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02336561458060095886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-70652415065164507412010-02-02T06:37:40.458+00:002010-02-02T06:37:40.458+00:00Compare Germany and the UK. One has three times as...Compare Germany and the UK. One has three times as many applications, and three times as many patent attorneys, as the other. How to explain the x3? The different law. German employee inventor law (also found in Japan and, I guess, South Korea, and originally promulgated by one A. Hitler), obliges an employee inventor to notify each innovation to the employer, and each employer to file on it. <br /><br />Now, UK patent attorneys, wouldn't you like to live in a more equal country like Germany?MaxDreinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-72399393837153119342010-02-02T01:21:44.103+00:002010-02-02T01:21:44.103+00:00The pronunciation test may work in the UK or my ho...The pronunciation test may work in the UK or my home country of New Zealand - "pay-tent" is (or at least was) the educated pronunciation; but here in the US it is "pa-tent" even among those in the profession.Dereknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-12034518105215481582010-02-01T18:15:01.741+00:002010-02-01T18:15:01.741+00:00I remember when a related issue came up in the 199...I remember when a related issue came up in the 1990s, the Japanese were shown to have the largest number of patents. At the time, I thought it most likely to be due to the rather more restrictive laws on unity of invention in that country.Certainly, in those days, it was not unusual for a European Patent application to have several Japanese priority documents. (Another factor is the large number of private applicant patents in Japan, which if nothing else provided good entertainnment for Derwent staff like me (For example see below)). Given that the majority of patents are in "families" and owned by companies not necessarily based in the country of issue of the patent, it seems to this (admittedly unqualified) observer that the number of patents is more a function of the size of the economy in the territory in question as this drives whether it is viable to apply for and maintain a patent there.Chris Torreronoreply@blogger.com