A Graphic and an Op-Ed Reinforce the Need for Improving our Patent System

The New York Times Editorial Board presented a constructive editorial in the April 16, 2022 issue. I appreciate the accompanying illustration, too. "Save America's Patent System" outlines how the system could function better if we enforce existing standards, improve the process for challenging bad patents, eliminate potential conflicts of interest, collaborate with other agencies and let the public participate. ​"And for all the hand-wringing over how to lower prescription drug costs in recent years, little has been said about the patent system or its many failings. Put simply: The United States Patent and Trademark Office is in dire need of reform." 

Illustration by Rebecca Chew/The New York Times; photographs by Yevgen Romanenko, moi/amanaimagesRF, Westend61 and Marie Hickman, via Getty Images.