Research and Development - R&D. Inventing cool new stuff. That's my talent. It's what I'm supposed to be doing.

Instead, here I am running for Prez.

Think of the government as an old car. You need to get somewhere, but it's broken down in the shop. You're going
nowhere till it's fixed. You aren't a mechanic, but you know whats wrong and the 'professionals' are really just
idiots who are making it worse AND flushing your time down the toilet. Eventually, you realize that you are
going to have to take it away from them, get your hands dirty and fix it yourself.

I never had any interest in politics. I just wanted to be an inventor. But I've never been able to make much money
at it. You could make a case that I don't have any sales, marketing or business skills, so it's my fault, but I
believe the basic problem is that there is no real system in place to enable inventors to prosper in this country.

Whereas there are robust and well organised systems to find and nurture sports talent, young inventors are usually
on their own beyond any help they might get from relatives and close freinds.

Can you imagine the young Micheal Jordan being lost amongst the millions of others his age, eventually falling into
a career as an income tax preparer at H&R Block, lucky to pay off his student loans by 35, his amazing talent worth
only bragging rights and cheap trophies from a local basketball club?

Nobody expects talented young basketball players to also be business geniuses and build their careers from scratch,
but that's pretty much the deal for kids with a talent for creating new stuff. There is no NBA for inventors. The
best they can hope for usually is to work their way thru as much college as they can afford and get a job in the
R&D department of a big company. Then, if they are particularly brilliant, they could slowly rise thru the ranks
while earning a salary that, altho quite good by normal standards, is nothing compared to what the company
makes off their inventions.

America is easily the most inventive country on Earth, but from an absolute perspective, it is a dismal failure
at fostering creativity. It is the best only because all the others are even worse.

Instead of helping inventors, the USPTO serves more as an intimidating giant obstacle to scare away people
who have an idea, but no money or time to go thru the patent process. And those who do proceed find that it's
a murky maze full of booby traps and predators. If they do finally succeed in getting a patent, they are likely
to discover the hard way that it only grants them the right to spend years in court trying to gain restitution
from someone who violated the patent. If it's a big company, good luck! Their lawyers can keep it in court till
the inventor runs out of money or dies of old age. Patent 'protection' is worth about as much as the paper
its printed on against a bullet.

The practical function of the patent system is to provide a comfortable specialty career for lazy lawyers and a
fortified barrier to competition for large corporations. And a side effect of it's shabby condition is a flourishing
cottage industry full of con men who have set up bogus invention development & marketing companies.

You've probably seen commercials for InventHelp or whatever they call themselves these days. You know - the one
with the cartoon cavemen and his stone wheel. They've changed the name at least twice that I know of, but love
that cartoon too much to give it up. I suppose they file for bankruptcy when the number of lawsuits from dissatisfied
'customers' pile up too high, then open up shop under a new name. They're the biggest now, and there are probably
hundreds of smaller operations across the country just as crooked as them.

This has been going on forever so obviously the USPTO and the government in general do not care enuff to shut
them down. When I was a teenager it was The Raymond Lee Organization running commercials like a deep
sea trawling net to drag in hopeful inventors. I forget what my invention was, but a week after recieving my free
introductory package from them, there they were on 60 Minutes, running away from Morley Safer and his
camera man! Lucky for me that I never gave them any money.

Sure, people do succeed sometimes. I'm not saying it's impossible to make a living, or maybe even get rich as
an inventor. I'm saying the system is not helping inventors or the greater good of the country; that it is a
hinderance to technological progress. Whatever the PTO's charter states, a visit to one of the palatial law
offices specializing in corporate patent work contrasted with the miilions of inventors who have worked for years
only to end up with nothing for their efforts will verify my opinion.