State should pay patent litigation costs, says inventor

Baylis hit the headlines last week when he wrote to Government Business Secretary Peter Mandelson to say that patent infringement should be made a criminal offence.

Baylis has now told technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio that the state should pay the costs of inventors who need to go to court to protect themselves.

"I think that UK Plc has got to stand behind the lone inventor," he said. "If I spend £3,000 with lawyers or even five or six or 10 of £15,000 to protect my idea, then it's got to be like a fortress. But then if somebody takes it, circumnavigates it and gets into it, you've had it."

"If they do break in and you've got sufficient evidence that you were the creator of that idea then he or she would automatically have their day in court and the expense would be down to the nation because the nation … will be one of the beneficiaries if this invention comes to market," he said.

Baylis's suggestion to criminalise patent infringement has been resisted even by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA).

“It’s nothing like as clear-cut as, for example, making illicit copies of a DVD and selling them at a car boot sale,” said Alasdair Poore, vice president of CIPA.  “It is perfectly possible to infringe someone else’s patent inadvertently. In some cases, you would have to check many thousands of patents to see if any of them might apply to something you have just invented. And even if you find something, it isn’t always clear that the earlier patent is valid, or that it covers the type of application you have in mind.”

Baylis likened patent infringement to theft of physical goods and said that the Government and business should offer better support to inventors.

"If … we encourage our youngsters to have a go then we've got to be there for them to prevent them being turned over [like] a turkey," he said. "We've got to be there."

Hear Trevor Baylis