首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Patents and Inventions When an invention is made, the inventor has three possible courses of action open to him: first, he can g
Patents and Inventions When an invention is made, the inventor has three possible courses of action open to him: first, he can g
admin
2013-08-12
22
问题
Patents and Inventions
When an invention is made, the inventor has three possible courses of action open to him: first, he can give the invention to the world by publishing it; keep the idea secret or patent it. Secrecy obviously
evaporates
once the invention is sold or used, and there is always the risk that in the meantime another inventor, working quite independently will make and patent the same discovery. A granted patent is the result of a bargain struck between an inventor and the state, whereby, in return for a limited period of monopoly(16 years in the UK), the inventor publishes full details of his invention to the public.
Once the monopoly period expires, all those details of the invention pass into the public domain.(A)
Only in the most exceptional circumstances is the life-span of a patent extended to alter this normal process of events.(B)
The longest extension ever granted was to Georges Valensi: his 1939 patent for color TV receiver circuitry was extended until 1971.(C)
Because for most of the patent’s normal life there was no color TV to receive and thus no hope of reward for the invention.(D)
George Valensi was more fortunate than most of other inventors.
Because a patent remains
perpetually
published after it has expired, the shelves of the library attached to the British Patent Office contain details of literally millions of ideas that are free for anyone to use and, if older than half a century, sometimes even re-patent. Indeed, patent experts often advise anyone wishing to avoid the high cost of conducting a search through live patents, that the one sure way of avoiding infringement of any other inventor’s rights is to
plagiarize
a dead patent.
Likewise, because publication of an idea in any other form permanently invalidates future patents on that idea, it is traditionally safe to cull ideas from other areas of print.
Much modern technological advance is based on these presumptions of legal security.
Anyone closely involved in patents and inventions soon learns that most "new" ideas are, in fact, as old as the hills. It is their reduction to commercial practice, either through necessity, dedication or the availability of new technology, that makes news and money. The basic patents for the manufacture of margarine and the theory of magnetic recording date back to 1869 and 1886 respectively. Many of the original ideas behind television stem from the late 19th and early 20th century, well before Baird aroused public interest. Every stereo gramophone sold today owes its existence to the theory patented by Blumlein in 1931, and even the Volkswagen rear engine car was anticipated by a 1904 patent for a cart with the horse at the rear.
Such anticipations can have surprising significance. The German chemical giant, BASF, was recently refused a patent for the clever idea of pumping expanded plastics into a submerged ship and thereby floating it to the surface. The
grounds
of the refusal were that the German Examiner had once seen a Walt Disney cartoon in which Donald Duck had performed a similar trick on a sunken boat with table-tennis balls. If the BASF scheme proves successful in practice and enables valuable wrecks to be salvaged it is likely that Walt Disney will be credited as the inventor.
Even the apparently safe history of the telephone and gramophone contains some surprises. US legal case law details how an American called Drawbaugh had ideas for a telephone which anticipated Bell’s patents of 1875 —1876 by five years, but it was Alexander Graham Bell who made the system practical on a commercial level and was acknowledged and rewarded as inventor.
The future will produce many similar situations. Patents are daily being granted for ideas from inventors for schemes that cannot yet work~-but that one day, following massive investment by industry, will become a reality. It is remarkably easy to sit in the comfort of an armchair and patent pipe dreams which are nothing more than prophecies of the future and problems for others to solve.
The word plagiarize in Paragraph 3 can be replaced by______.
选项
A、employ
B、learn
C、appreciate
D、re-patent
答案
A
解析
本题是词汇题,主要考查考生根据上下文对单词plagiarize一词的理解。根据“the onesure way of avoiding infringement of any other inventor’s rights is to plagiarize a dead patent”可知,作者的意思是,专利专家建议人们使用已经公开的过期的专利,从中获得灵感,以创造出新的发明。因此,plagiarize在这儿不是“剽窃,抄袭”的意思,而是“采用”的意思,与选项A的意思最为接近,因此选A。选项B(学习)、选项C(赏识,鉴赏)、选项D(重新申请专利)意思相差很远。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/gmfO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSorANUMBERforeachanswer.DISSERTATIONINFORMATION
Completethetablebelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSfareachanswer.
CircleTHREElettersA~F.WhattypesoffilmsdoesLouiselike?(A)Action(B)Comedies(C)Musicals(D)Romance(E)Westerns(F)Wild
Completethenotesbelowusingwordsfromthebox.ArtGalleryCathedralCastleGardensMarketsTouristattractionsopenallday
Themanwantsinformationoncoursesfor
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.MuseumofAnthropologyThemuseumisnotopenon______inwinter.
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.MuseumofAnthropologyTo______isthebestwayofgettingtothemuseum.
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.MuseumofAnthropologyThesculptureintheRotundatook______morethanthreeyearstoc
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.MuseumofAnthropology
随机试题
我国现行高等学校领导体制有何特点?
如图所示应力状态(应力单位为MPa),该点处最大切应力理论的相当应力为()。
堆石坝坝料压实质量检查,应采用碾压参数和干密度(孔隙率)等参数控制,以控制()为主。
在______,银行可以对符合贷款条件的项目出具贷款意向书;在________,各银行应按批准贷款的权限,根据有关规定,对外出具贷款承诺。()
()是补偿职工在特殊条件下的劳动消耗以及生活费额外支出的工资。
组织沿革的内容包括()
bbF的等音是()
【2013年烟台龙口市】强调成熟机制对人的发展起决定作用的是()。
Inlessthan30year’stimetheStarTrekholodeckwillbeareality.Directlinksbetweenthebrain’snervoussystemandacomp
1Thecaseforcollegehasbeenacceptedwithoutquestionformorethanageneration.Allhighschoolgraduatesoughttogo,
最新回复
(
0
)