First to file, and simultaneous invention

Techdirt writes of issues with first to file [ That is, they [first to invent supporters] were defining inventor by being only the very first person to come up with it. ] and gets into the simultaneous invention idea:

Now, I don't believe this is true. I think many people can invent the same things entirely independently, and history seems to support that conjecture. One of my major problems with the patent system is that, despite the claim that it's supposed to help inventors, it actually harms every single other inventor, except the one who gets the patent. That seems incredibly anti-inventor to me. If, as is common, you have a bunch of different folks working on a particular innovation, and all of them come up with more or less the same solution, why should only one get the monopoly? That directly harms everyone else by taking away their right to use their own invention!

Techdirt's link on the conjecture business is to a piece by Malcolm Gladwell.

**See


Lemley on the myth of the solo inventor


Romanticizing the role of the solo inventor?