
Consider a Spherical Patent: IP and Patenting in Technology Business
18
as rigorous as most people assume it is. As a consequence, it is easy for a technology
business to remain blissfully unaware of the fact that the patents its high-entropy
patenting system is generating are shoddy to the point of being useless.
Because patenting systems are complex, they are subject to the functional inde-
terminacy theorem of complex systems, which states:
In complex systems, malfunction and even total nonfunction
maynot be detectable for long periods of time, if ever (Gall 1975).
Most complaints about patents seem to come from those who yearn for the pat-
enti ...