Background Statement

Diversified products, electronic or mechanic, automatic or semi-auto or even hand-operated, at home or in the office in this physically developed world allow a lot of people enjoying their lives and laughing over believing they are leading lives thousands of times better than the past emperors had ever experienced in the most extravagant manner. Although Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian Mahatma calmly uttered we need many more earths if all the people on earth were to lead their lives in the style western lives run, which certainly at least flashes a moving in the mind of people, people in different countries on earth still dare vie with each other with their respective best efforts to pursue their lives to be the same or approximately the same level as in the United States of America being the sole superpower at present and being the model a great many of nations on earth try their every endeavor to establish.

Damages in the amount near one billion in Taiwan in NT dollars and in the US in US dollars have effectively aroused the potential ambition originally curdled or bridled in the deep sea of the people’s mind in the past but will cause no overwhelming wavy ripple in their mind at present. People in the politically unequal time strove hard to show they are born to be equal. Nowadays, not only nations are afflicted with attempts to obtain a skillful deployment for economic booming, but people of nearly all countries design day and night how to improve their economic lives. It appears to be logically correct to indicate this is an era people are born to strive for economic power or strength, which will not be abated in view of the fact that it is not seldom found that a millionaire or billionaire hardworking during their precious life frame to be so named will donate a big sun to the charity organization.

Developments being always compulsory slogans of politicians in every country are exactly executors of stripping kinds of mineral resources stored in various parts of the earth carrying thereon people considering it should or might make no harm to the earth or the people living thereon through the extensive exploitation of rich or ample contents according to the rule of substance conservation since all of products produced by original contents of the earth will return to the earth in another kind of contents. The facts that said another kind of contents are called garbage and that such garbage has inflicted kinds of actual mishaps, e.g. breaking the polar ozone layer, raising the world temperature…etc. do not deter lofty sentiments and aspirations of people everywhere in economically conquering the world or effectively serve to much change their decisions as to how should they operate their lives. Just like the phenomenon of car-pooling, everyone knows it is a good idea but no one is happy or willing to act or be self-disciplined under such magnanimous confinement.

Dramatically, in this millennially switching year, there is an experiment made by the England people that children deprived of modern facilities still can happily live on earth and never behave pale before modernized children in capabilities and abilities. The history always makes a joke, no matter what great or not. Initiating the world to be machined or industrialized through the presentation of the steam engine, it appears to be uncertain how James Watt, if resurrected at the present time, will reflect or express his thoughts about such experiment U.K. proceeded recently, in view of the repetitive Western warnings that it is never so much optimistic that the human being can survive on the earth for another thousand of years if the way they lead their lives is not changed much.

Summary of developments

It is therefore an object of the present article to briefly discuss the relation between the patent system and the earth.

It is therefore another object of the present article to prick or sting the mind or head of the reader for trying to solicit some solutions therefrom for overcoming problems the reader might find or believe to exist.

A patent is a kind of rights, no matter what in terms of wealth or power, always attracting people to chase, regardless of whether they can eventually succeed since it is said it is more interesting and important as to what you have experienced in the procedure of pursuing the target you are aiming than what you finally reap in fact. Accordingly, how many or how much enormous resources have been placed under the control of the pursuer has a great weight in evaluating how strong a bloc or an entrepreneur is or has been. A patent is a kind of weapon, no matter how it will turn out to be in the long run, being always fierce or smothering in soliciting or alluring assistances, or culminating or accumulating the patentee’s strength. Variant is not seldom found in biology, neither is the social system.

It appears that every one must believe that the patent system is originally designed to improve the life of the human being. Specifically, while the government granting a patent right in return for the technological disclosure from the patentee, the public will benefit thereby through the possibility that an advanced development or research will become much easier in view of the technological disclosure. In the primitive industrializing time, the attempted target of the patent system is chased by all people to wonderfully prosper the economical situation of the world, at least the western countries. Nowadays, to lead a comfortable life is no longer a big problem. What is the core is the invulnerable, unconquerable and uncontrollable mind of the human being desiring to gather, produce and/or attract everything which is related to powerfulness under their possession, no matter what in substance or merely nominally, when they are young or before they can successfully understand that one really happily enjoying his life needs not necessarily possess much wealth or can get confident or somehow be convinced that he will not happier even if he were enough wealthy. The patent right is one of ideal weapons in formulating or networking the market powerfulness for an ambitious social entity.

Many countries have a green party appealing save on kinds of global resources for reserving the earth at a better status for preferably living thereon our descendants. Without the green party in each country, the earth might have already been worse. Nevertheless, it would appear that the human being does or did not treat the earth in a way to show or declare that you and we do want to leave an earth in a good form for our unlimited next generations. There are so many factors or variables contributing to the possibility of forming an earth of deathly stillness. We have no interest in discussing here these factors or variables except the one related to the patent system. Patent practitioners need not feel sorry, even finding or partially believing, after finishing reading this article, the patent system might cause disaster to the earth since they or we have devoted ourselves, at least in the past, to construct an environment permitting us to calmly deal with this solemn topic today, by which, perhaps, we are able to jointly work out, or strive if found necessary some day in the future, some programs to salvage our next generations or the earth.

The above and other objects and/or concerns will become more apparent, terrifying or lovely from the following further descriptions possibly alluring, causing and/or converting meditation or reflection from the reader into concrete actions capable of alleviating or extinguishing various behaviors or acts of the human being, which incur kinds of damages to or many phenomena on the earth and troubles of our writing/reading this article here.

Brief Items to be Discussed for Presenting Issues We Concern

*How the patent system interacts with treasures fostered by the earth?

*Could the patent system strip the earth?

*How the earth connives at the patent system?

*How the patent system can last with the earth?

Detailed Analyses

It was reported that the petroleum the earth can afford the people’s consumption for further 43 years. Somewhat more luckily, the natural gas or the uranium-related elements the earth can provide can sustain the human being for about some 50 or 60 years. Fortunately to some extent, the coal in the superficial skin of the earth is willing to be burnt by the human being for about 200 years. Optimists might proudly asserts that the God creates the human being which in turn will invent everything considered necessary to meet the quality life they want to pursue. Nearsighted misers might conceitedly allege it is quite possible that during their conscious lives, all misfortunes will not happen to them. Pessimists might have been benumbed after repetitively reminded to worry about their descendants as to how the human being could lead the life on earth after 50 years? While every body says or would like to love this earth, why in our daily lives, it appears that we cruelly treat the earth. Why the situation so becomes? Why this phenomenon so continues? Who should be held responsible therefor? Who can rescue the human being or the earth?

*How the patent system interacts with treasures fostered by the earth?

Mineral resources or treasures are formed or fostered by the earth through billions of years. As an example, the petroleum has its primitive materials coming from bodies of kinds of animals and plants. It is quite imaginable that if the human being cannot afford their lives to be finally extinguished due to the exhaustion of resources they require for life, through some another billions of years, the earth might again be able to ferment some other kind of resources with the primitive material of billions of bodies of the human being to be exploited by another kind of living being then existing on the earth. Although the earth has hardly brewed the resources daily necessary for the human being nowadays for billions of years, being the great master of all kinds of living things on earth, the human being can and dare nearly exhaust all kinds of important resources in their daily lives in about not more than 200 years. It is unknown whether people are really clever enough to exploit kinds of resources to improve their lives or in fact are stupid enough to dig the tomb for the mankind and all the other living beings.

Competition brings in advancement. The patent system is a good medium to boom competition or boost advancement. According to the traditional Chinese theory, a person is a small cosmos, as contrasted with or approximately equivalent to the physical huge cosmos. Accordingly, a person has potent or unlimited potentials. Motivation gives or forms an endless drive to terrifyingly urge the person to strenuously strive for the aimed goal. The nuclear bomb might illustratively show how powerful persons can arm themselves, research or develop the world to be.

Motivation can be represented in several effective forms, e.g. money feedback, position in an entity, interests of various kinds…etc. with the former two being the most popular in the daily life. While sound salary or relatively high-rank company title oftentimes are alluring, billions of damages and non-measurable royalties normally are much more stinging, encouraging and/or attractive, the phenomenon of which is the role the patent system is playing to be. The person always feels he/she is great when he/she has a dream for which he/she is devoted himself/herself to pursue. As readily apparent, dreaming oneself to be a billionaire appears to be a wonderful thing even if it would never become possible for himself/herself to be so during his/her life. As is known, the patent system makes such dream to possibly come true in a relatively easy and/or rapid way.

From contents of the International Patent Classification, it can be known how many fields in which the patent system can involve. As a rigorous motivation, people are haunted with diversified ideas eligible for patent protection and capable of boiling motion or soliciting desire of them. Each mineral resource is a kind of treasure before it is utilized but normally becomes a kind of garbage thereafter. Nevertheless, the human being has no great interest in so considering or evaluating the matter. Necessity is no more a target for the patent system. Instead, luxury or extravagance show the rank or position any specific one has, and are inter alia expressed in terms of the following ways:

1. While a first kind of article, e.g. a mouse is good enough for satisfying a specific demand, e.g. cursor control in the daily life of a specific user, the user normally does not reject to possess a second kind of article, e.g. a track ball for satisfying the same demand;
2. While a first class of article, e.g. a personal computer with 300 MHz CPU normally is perfect for performing the work, e.g. word processing of the user, the user often tries to rise or update its personal computer into one of a second class with 730 MHz CPU, although average ones including the user knows it, in fact, is unnecessary for it to so do;
3. While the user has already had an expedient medium, e.g. the computer for recording its current factual life, the user not only wants to cherish its past life but also would like to virtually present itself, e.g. by modifying and/or editing its image through the new technology, e.g. the scanner into one being younger or more beautiful or handsome. Although what this virtual behavior would or could eventually bring about what kinds of factual advantages to its life remains not so much certain, the world has been once subject to somewhat thorough baptism of the relevant technology;
4. While the world becomes duller and duller because of the disappearance of wild field and mutual hearty concern among people, people are locked in their homes or before their computers to explore funs and/or make money from the Internet. Made available partly by software patents or methods of doing business and partially by others, people surfing on the Internet to kill their time are afflicted with kinds of sicknesses or ailments;
5. All of above-mentioned tangible hardware products and intangible but controllable software products relating to food, clothes, house, traffic vehicles, education, resort facilities…etc. relate to the patent system by which new, exciting, fatally attractive, hardly resistible, crazy-incurring matters weed through the old to bring forth the new and flood the mind, home, body, soul and/or daily life of people.

*Could the patent system strip the earth?

Goods in daily use for people can normally be products under protection of patent system. People tend to love the new and loathe the old. Goods or products normally come from resources on or in the earth. Although the food for the human being often is recyclable in the nature, i.e. soil, water and sun provide enough conditions for constructing the food chain, the food, in this fast world, needs other media, e.g. chemical fertilizer or growth-assistant medium which again involves in other resources of the earth, to be grown regularly or in a promoted manner. It is easily conceivable that articles in fields other than the food industry will involve in diversified resources. Again, before exploited, the resource is a kind of wealth but after consumed, which is oftentimes meant to have the satisfaction or meet with the spiritual demand of a limited period of time for a specific person, it always becomes a waste. Without this resource-wasting procedure, the spirit of the human being does not feel consoled, people do not know how to kill their time and the body of the human being will not feel comfortably manipulated by the mind.

Won’t you believe the patent system strip the earth? Although it appears, to some degree, that we are saying frightening words just to raise an alarm or exaggerating things just to scare people, is it possible that one stands stoutly emotionless after got known to how people are treating or stripping the earth in the above-mentioned manners with the following few examples?

1. It is not seldom found in the restaurant that there always are dish remainders or more than half dishes of goods to be treated as leftovers merely because the one who orders dishes desires to make it clear he/she is so much unrestrained or heroic and possesses lofty sentiments without any consciousness considering how many resources, e.g. the heat required to prepare the dishes which is patentable, have been mobilized to prepare the ordered dishes;
2. So far as the supplemental water supply for the human body is concerned, we can find here and there selling bottled water, boxed beverage and/or canned drink on the one hand and can also easily have the sight of huge piles of containers of bottles, boxes and/or cans. The person consuming bottled water, boxed beverage or canned drink normally will not consider the fact on the one hand that the containing bottle, box or can means many resources, e.g. the machine for manufacturing the bottle, box or can, are involved in its preparation which is patentable, and does not care on the other hand whether the contents thereof have been fully consumed. This situation can be found much more serious in so-called developed countries;
3. While one is leisurely living in one’s home, especially for a space having many rooms, it is not seldom found that those rooms have many of their lights turned on to pray or represent the home will have a bright future (?) even when all the family stay in the same room and will not go to other room for a substantial period of time. By the same token, what kinds of resources, e.g. a specific fuel and its energy-converting medium which is patentable, are involved in providing the power for supplying the lights does not normally raise much concern in any one’s mind;
4. Clothes are used to cover for protecting the body or preventing it from having a chill. Basically, it is generally correct for our communist countrymen when their economic situation was not so good in the past to consider that clothes can be regarded as new for 3 years, old for another 3 years and available for use for another 3 years through sewing and mending. Nevertheless, it appears to be hardly found that a man has clothes, for the proper season, fewer than 3 suits and a woman 10 suits in any a country not the poorest one in the world. People regularly buy clothes not for compulsory necessity but for keeping pace with the popular style then-current by minding whether they can afford to that effect without concerning whether they are exhausting resources, e.g. the petroleum the utilization of which is patentable, on earth;
5. Shopping is phonetically and freely translated in Chinese as “血拼”, which include two words ‘blood’ and ‘competition’ and literally mean competitively purchasing even with one’s blood. Shopping does not originate from necessity but does frequently happen merely because the emotion of a person, often she (?), needs be smoothed. Every one has the tendency for some kind of moral devotion and must believe he/she loves the world and wants his/her next generations to be able to happily lead their lives on earth as he/she does, but whenever his/her emotion needs be smoothed, it appears that he/she forgets everything in this regard and bravely shops here and there these and those goods without reminding his/her memory anything about how such shopping might exhaust resources, e.g. animals of near extinction the resuming technique of which is patentable, on earth;
6. Household commodities, e.g. lamps, sound facilities, visual equipment, living accessories…, personal necessities or hobbies, e.g. model collections, car-driving experience, sea-diving joy…, industrial, commercial and/or future ventures, e.g. outer space adventure, unnecessary interesting explorations in deep sea or land, developing new industry for booming up the world economic of next step…, …are few examples additional to the extremely limited preceding mentioned ones. Nevertheless, it appears to be enough for one to take into consideration what one is doing or how one’s behavior will influence the earth. Taking the car to be the ending example in this paragraph, a car of a new model, a new horsepower, a new maneuverability… which certainly is patentable normally again, appears to be always moving a person, especially a man to unnecessarily change a new car.

*How the earth connives at the patent system?

As a planet of medium size, the earth contains therein myriad resources for the utilization of the human being and is able to grow thereon kinds of creatures through the cooperation of the sun and other stars for living with the human being. It is generally accepted that the land or the earth is so much like the great mother of the human being who affords such many resources to be carelessly disposed by the human being without any a word of resentment, fosters unlimited leases of lives under the control of the human being without asking any reimbursement and always tries to take and bear all kinds of garbages the human being optionally pour at any time without any kind of rejection as long as she could withstand independently by herself. We are not a member of Green Party of any country and certainly do not know how, what and why they plan to do. What we do here is merely to take a stop in this time of fast rhythm and cursorily exercise a further thought as to what might be the result resulting from what we are doing casually now.

As a social system, the patent system appears to have duly played a correct and wonderful role in the past. Although we are not sure whether the patent system will negatively serve its purpose in the future, it might be harmless if we stop to take a look at a crossroad for an appropriate while after proper discussions and/or further researches. It is unfair that we consider the patent system is the last and primary criminal to drive the matter into the present situation if it is negative. There must and should be other chief culprits who could be held responsible for the bad conditions the human being have resulted in the past. We are so small and tiny upon facing the problems, which in fact have been well-known for a long period of time, we are disclosing now. It appears to be necessary to call for kinds of assistances in diversified fields to be extensively dealt with in order that all problems or the real problem can be pertinently solved. Nevertheless, the patent system should undoubtedly be one of the resulting factors for explaining the present situation.

In the primitive or agricultural time, the society system is simple. If there is a social problem, except an incurable disease, a single policy normally is enough to cope with that problem. The problem we are facing now appears to be not simple and is not solvable by a single policy. Perhaps, we have unconsciously cooked the problem to be a big one. Alternatively, the apparently insolvable problem might in fact consist of many sub-problems, some of which are still unclear, some of which remain hard to be solved and some of which are uncertain as to whether they can have been correctly overcome by measures adopted at the present time.

Recently, it is reported that a chip can be plastic-based rather than silicon-based and can be further extensively put into use. Once this innovation comes into our lives, we can live more easily, which further means that we can further ignore or disregard the possible ensuing trouble from what we have done, which again means that we can save energy or time for engaging in another activity, which additionally means that we are allowed to make more inventions, which needs be substantiated through the provision of resources by the earth, which normally makes the situation worse, which can often be explained by the phenomenon that the more we are physically satisfied, the more we feel spiritually lone, which means that we need more tangible articles or required more occupied in exhausting our energies and cleverness, which once more makes the situation worse, which means that while we are trying to find answers for problems presenting before us, we cannot stop stripping the resources of the earth for fear of losing or being eliminated, which means that more new inventions will be created in the future, which means that we are so easy to be tired of old objects, which repetitively means that …

The land or the earth likes a mother with endless love, indulging all human being engaging in tasks of stripping her resources with which she is endurable and cool enough and tries her best to take and recognize everything we are doing until the time when her constituents by themselves cannot harmonically coordinate with one another, on which opportunity, so called the natural counterattack, she still is timid enough to reflect what we have done or rearrange her constituents to the least required extent for her to subsist on her life for amiably carrying continuously thereon all of us still designedly trying all our efforts in stripping her resources at the present stage.

It is reported that the service for armouring the car in Brazil for protecting the driver from being robbed or killed is getting hotter and hotter. People work hard in order to be rich after which they try hard to better protect themselves from being invaded for which they work more hard to seek. What is this world? What is the final target or goal we are doing or working for? The human being have successfully conquered the earth to be the king of all kinds of creatures, causing distinction of many creatures, plant or animal, partly due to the expanded population of the human being, possibly ruining the bionomical environment on earth and having seemingly armed their nerves for vigorous competition of the next stage which means that the resource utilization or stripping of the earth of the next wave is upcoming which is not vividly clear as to whether or not it denotes a misfortune for the earth or the human being.

*How the patent system can last with the earth?

Perhaps, some time in the future, we have more good ideas as to how the human being could solve the situations we are facing. While we are also praying we really could become so clever in the future, it appears to be advisable that any interested party in the patent society may now consider how the patent system can properly get along with the kind earth always generously conniving at the patent system in the past.

Our current President, Mr. Chen, although we are not uncertain how long he can continuously occupy his position subject to a potential and/or pending recall, who wrecks the booming economical situation in Taiwan in no more than half a year according to the public opinion here, after his intercontinental journey this year, uttered in a low-key tone that although our friend countries do not have a good economic condition, it is found nationals of our friend countries appear to lead their lives happily. It seems to be our past experience that one of physical poverty might be wonderfully spiritually rich. It appears to be clear whether one is happy largely depends on whether he/she can have a spiritually rich living environment rather than how rich he/she is. In fact, a rich person must normally keep himself/herself on the alert toward everything with which he/she meets in order to keep his/her rank/status and protect him/her, which explains why the Buddhist decide to escape from this competition society. Who will be happier, we competing in the world or the Buddhist?

In ending the November, 2000, the picture showing the male King penguin hatching the egg and ever continuously stopping eating for 33 days focuses the eyes of Taiwanese nationals who are suffering a tough economical depression and dare not place an optimistic forecast toward the future because of the unexpected managing/governing measures and illogical/inexplicit underlying ideas/concepts exercised by the governments. Nevertheless, such picture expressly exhibiting, through kinds of public media, the manner how an animal, which did not deserve much in our past opinion, gives its endless patriarchal love to its potential baby without reservation, which does slightly warm up prejudicially cooled hearts of Taiwanese nationals, by which a bright future is again anticipated. It is thus proved that the human being can lead their happy lives, even under an economic difficulty, simply because they are in sight of a moving picture having a protagonist being an animal of low class, which appears to explain how and why the human being is the ruler of the earth because they have ability to reflect, have the capacity to learn and have the capability to redirect themselves.

Judges in the Supreme Court in the US sometimes give their precious legal opinions addressing about the nature of the human being and win general applause after the general public are moved. We are too lazy to check which specific Judge has stated what specific words, but still remember it relates something like that the human being are born to make mistakes and are weak and fragile so that they deserve to be forgiven and encouraged, by which we can be moved or shocked by the glory of the human nature, which is or should be the original intention that the human being creates the term of “human right” to seek for. Unfortunately, the principle of “human right” has been disguised to be extensively utilized to crash and unlock what are prohibited in the past and expand what are allowed to behave in the future, by which more unfortunately, it appears to be harder and harder for us to find there exist here and there instances of human brilliance for modelling and encouraging us to lead our future lives in a style which is assumed to be ideal.

Our topic here is the patent system. We have, however, dealt with or mentioned many matters which apparently have nothing to do with the patent system on the one hand but do have something to do therewith on the other hand. Taking few instances as examples, if we correctly interpret the “human right,” the world will be more orderly and we can be more calmly to more skillfully consider how to utilize the patent system to improve our lives. If we find ourselves moved by the king penguin, perhaps, we could stop our hasty living pace to figure out what might be the ultimate solution for problems, perhaps through the patent system, raised in the past time. If we are willing to suppress our ambition for a while, it is quite possible that we can run the patent system in somewhat a different way enabling us to last the patent system with the life of the earth. If we would like to temporarily suspend our everyday efforts exerted on making money, perhaps, we might not be such rich that we need to arm our car or defend our home by techniques sought to be protected by the patent system. If we would like to slow down our living pace, it appears to be possible that not only resources on earth will not be stripped too fast but it is imaginable that we can construct an environment fostering/culturing resources required for a happy human life for unlimited utilization by the patent system. If we are wise enough, rather than clever enough, to meditate before this physical world through a sedate reflection on accurate variables behind problems we face, we might be able to use the patent system for exploring aspects directed to the spiritual side rather than fields to the physical side, by which a brand new living style capable of effectively making a really peaceful and persistent world can then be secured. If we were willing to take a stop to listen for a while to the gist or intention of any member of the green party everywhere in the world and will not prejudicially consider them to be some kind of evilness, it is quite possible that we might find their lives need not be dull or colorless. Instead, we not only can use the patent system to improve their lives, but also might harmonize the patent system and their goal.

1. Although it has been controversial as to whether the patent system should be in existence, it appears to be unequivocal that it does add to improve the modern human life. As the ruler of the world, we hereby insist that the human being should act as a qualified ruler and be clever enough to make sure they are utilizing the patent system in a way not only doing good to themselves but also causing no or least harm to the earth on which they live.
2. As a social system, the patent system can and should be enhanced, abolished or changed with the time. We are too small and busy to address further here in this respect and sincerely invite interested governments, entities or individuals to so research and develop.
3. Although problems or difficulties presented before the human being nowadays do not necessarily relate to the patent system, we are of the opinion that a proper patent system is helpful in solving them. The problem before us is what kind of patent system is proper?
4. The picture showing the moved tears from relatives separately domiciled in Northern and Southern Koreas and artificially isolated for 50 years appears to advise the world that the true happiness needs not come from the physical side. Is it possible that the patent system is directed to the spiritual side?
5. Once upon a time, a tourist from a rich country taking his vacation at a small Pacific island told the local massagist if the latter works hard enough in a year, the latter would have the opportunity to take two-week vacation at a wonderful place like the former who was in turn advised by the latter that the latter leisurely lived in such place all the year round without the necessity of exhausting and harmful work. A reverse thinking mode for a matter sometimes is helpful, which should also be true for the patent system?
6. The weekly labor hour normally arouses a big dispute between capitalist and laborer in different countries, which appears to represent that the human being will feel happy if they need not work hard, which seems to mean that in fact, inventors on earth need not imprison themselves in the laboratories for devising new inventions which need not actually bring the world to a destination which we really prefer to have.
7. Two governments in two banks of the Taiwan Strait still antagonistically face with each other at the present stage. What kind of picture will present if they decide to be re-unified? If this happens, what will happen to the patent system? We are of the opinion that such picture is likely to be available to every one who has the opportunity to read this article. Furthermore, we are of the opinion it would appear that when such picture is present, the patent system might be somehow diverted although articles of the patent law themselves maybe remain unchanged.