mini-rants on IP law

1) Patents are property and there is a database at the USPTO where you can check to see who's the assignee of record, just like if you were buying a house you get the chain of title checked before you buy.

2) If you own a patent
a) check to make sure you're the assignee of record
b) check to make sure that the patent hasn't expired
particularly before you go trying to sell your patents to a third party.

3)I am so incredibly glad I am a patent lawyer and not a copyright lawyer the train wreck of orphan works, but if I had the power to change the copyright laws, I'd say let's scrap the Berne Convention, go back to a requirement for registration before copyright could be enforced, and change the copyright term to life + 28 years.

4)Of course, I'd also go back to patents having a 17-year life span.

5) I'd also support a different type of IP protection for ephemeral works, with a 10-year maximum lifespan. Sort of like the British Design Right or some of the German protections that aren't a full patent (software, patterns, etc.)

(cross-posted to ip_debate)