I agree, and a beautiful system it is. The United States has a system, and if you want to do business in the United States, you work within the system. I think that some people are so self defeating and want to make a patent an excuse why they can’t move forward sufficiently with business. Options include:

1. Create a different idea and get your own patent;
2. Hold onto the idea and update it, to be ready when the patent expires. When the opportunity does arise, knock the ball out of the park.
3. Do business elsewhere.
4. Pay for use of the idea with a licensing fee, spin off of it with permission, and make your money.

There are too many options available for people to complain so much. I just listed four. No matter who says what, or what the stats show around the world, it is what it is. It sounds like a perfectly reasonable system to me. It starts to sound like comapnies are saying “I’m upset, but I’m too lazy or cheap to put up a fight.”

I wouldn’t care how many patents we have relative to how much we manufacture. If I get a patent, I may not choose to manufacture things here, but I have just as much right to make money in business licensing to others, or have my items manufactured overseas. Think outside the box. If we don’t manufacture here, how much buying power do we have here in the U.S.? So, it’s not necessarily about the “manufacturing” but the licensing value, buying and selling. We file for patents because we want to make money…and we do here in the U.S.

I decided to join in on the fun, but has anyone noticed that the OP never asked anything about patent fairness? We’re all off topic, so unless you’re lobbying for patent reform on some serious level, I see no real point in bringing it up here on the toy forum. Whether you like it or not, YoyoJam got a patent, on a legal basis, something they paid for, and they are exercising their rights. Done deal.

I proudly wave the YoyoJam flag.