PrepTest 139 - Section 3 - Passage 3 - Question 21

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Passage A is from a 2007 article on the United States patent system; passage B is from a corporate statement.

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Critique · Of patent system

In theory, it should only be the "nonobvious" inventions that get patens.

Example · Patent upheld for "obvious" translation between Internet address and telephone number

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Critique · Patents too broad

In theory, patents should be narrow enough so others can "invent around" existing patents. But recently, patents are so broad that that's getting difficult.

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Negative Consequence · Large tech companies stockpile patents

This way, if they get sued for patent violations, they can countersue. If you're not a part of this "arms race" then you are defenseless against law suits.

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One Company's Perspective · Patents impede innovation; open-source is better

Whereas Passage A describes the problem with patents in software from a high level, Passage B takes the perspective of one software company affected by this problem and how they are responding to it.

Passage Style

21.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██

Question Type

WSE (RC)

This question only involves passage B. The position we’re interested in is that patents “impede innovation... and are inconsistent with open-source/free software.” We’re looking for the answer choice that suggests this isn’t true. In other words, we want an answer choice that suggests patents don’t impede innovation and/or are consistent with open-source/free software.

Most patents for ████████ ███████████ ████ █ ████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████

We want to weaken the idea that patents are bad for innovation. So we need an answer that at least tells us how patents affect innovation. (E) just tells us how long patents last, without explaining how those patents actually affect innovation.

13%

Software companies that ██ ███ ██████ ████████ █████████ █████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ███

We want to weaken the idea that patents are bad for innovation. But (E) gives us no information on how patents affect innovation. In fact, it doesn’t deal with innovation at all. Instead, it deals with reliability.

Some proprietary vendors ██████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███████████████ ████████

We want to weaken the idea that patents are bad for innovation. But (E) gives us no information on how patents affect innovation. In fact, it doesn’t deal with innovation at all.

17%

Software innovation would ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ██ █████████

This gives a reason why patents might actually help, rather than impede, innovation. They make innovation more profitable, which means people have more incentive to innovate.

48%

The main beneficiaries ██ ████████ ███████████ ███ █████ ████████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███████████

We want to weaken the idea that patents are bad for innovation. But (E) gives us no information on how patents affect innovation. In fact, it doesn’t deal with patents at all.

14%

PrepTest 139 - Section 3 - Passage 3 - Question 21

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