Self-paced
Passage A is from a 2007 article on the United States patent system; passage B is from a corporate statement.
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P1
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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
P2
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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.
P3
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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.
P4
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Negative Consequence ·
Software
This problem is particularly bad in software. A critical component can be patented. It can be challenging to discover whether something is under patent protection.
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P5
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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.
P6
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Agreement ·
Software patents are a problem
This company agrees with Passage A that the "arms race" is bad for the industry.
P7
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Behavior ·
Amass a portfolio of patents
The company participates in the "arms race" but expresses regret. They have to do this even though they recognize that this is not good for the industry.
Passage Style
21.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██
a
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.
b
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.
c
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.
d
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.
e
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.