The Patent Truth

I was driving the kids to school one morning when Sarah said, “When I grow up, I want to be a dentist."

"That's very good, Sarah."

"What do you want to be when you grow up, Kor Kor?”, she asked.

“I want to be a race driver.”

“Race CAR driver, Matthew,” I corrected.

“Oh ya, I want to be a race car driver.”

Sarah said, “What do you want to be when you grow up, Mummy?”

“I’m already grown up, Sarah!”

“No, what do you want to do, I mean.”

“Er... I’m a patent agent.”

“What’s a patent agent?”

“A patent agent is someone who helps you to get a patent.”

“What’s a patent?” Matthew asked.

“A patent... OK, if you invent something and you don’t want people to copy it, like say Toyota invents a new engine for cars (I pointed at the cars around us) and they don’t want other car makers to copy them, they can file a patent. And they go to a patent agent who helps them to do that.”

“But how does the patent stop people from copying?” Matthew pressed.

Good question.

“Yes, the patent itself can’t really stop people from copying, but if you have a patent, you can take it to a judge who will decide whether the person is really copying, and if he’s really copying, the judge can make him stop or make him pay a lot of money.”

“Oh!” Matthew replied.

Then Sarah piped up, “Kor Kor always copies me!”