Public Patent Foundation

About PUBPAT

The Public Patent Foundation (“PUBPAT”) is a not-for-profit legal services organization working to protect the public from the harms caused by the patent system. PUBPAT provides the general public, particularly those persons or businesses otherwise deprived of access to the system governing patents, with representation, advocacy, and education.

Mission Statement

The Public Patent Foundation protects civil liberties and free markets from wrongly issued patents and unsound patent policy by providing those persons and businesses otherwise economically, politically, and socially deprived of access to the system governing patents with representation, advocacy and education.

The Need for a Public Patent Foundation

Many patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are wrongly issued. They issue for several reasons, including that the Patent Office was not aware of significant prior art (knowledge already in the public domain) and that the rules regarding how patents are granted are skewed through perverse patent policy to favor applicants. Wrongly issued patents injure the public because they can be used by private actors to preclude activity that would otherwise be permissible, if not desirable. This causes prices for goods to be artificially high, the advancement of science to be thwarted, and civil liberties to be inappropriately restrained.

Most people still do not realize how significantly wrongly issued patents and unsound patent policy are assailing their health, their freedoms, and their wallets. The pharmaceutical and information technology industries are full of markets hampered by wrongly issued patents. Similarly, free speech, privacy, and other individual liberties are increasingly being threatened by wrongly issued patents, especially as daily life becomes more technologically dependent. Unfortunately, the interests of the public to be free from wrongly issued patents and unsound patent policy are not adequately represented. As such, there is great need for a public service organization to represent those interests. PUBPAT is that organization.