Part II、真题解题
1993年Passage 3
When an invention is made, the inventor has three possible courses of action open to him: he
can give the invention to the world by publishing it, keep the idea secret, or patent it.
A granted patent is the result of a bargain struck between an inventor and the state, by which the inventor gets a limited period of monopoly (垄断) and publishes full details of his invention to the public after that period terminates. Only in the most exceptional circumstances is the lifespan of a patent extended to alter this normal process of events.
The longest extension ever granted was to Georges Valensi; his 1939 patent for color TV receiver circuitry was extended until 1971 because for most of the patent’ s normal life there was no colour TV to receive and thus no hope of reward for the invention.
Because a patent remains permanently public after it has terminated, the shelves of the library attached to the 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 violation of any other inventor’ s right is to plagiarize a dead patent. Likewise , because publication of an idea in any other form permanently invalidates further patents on that idea, it is traditionally safe to take 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 or dedication, or through the availability of new technology, that makes news and money. The basic patent for the theory of magnetic recording dates back to 1886. Many of the original ideas behind television originate from the late 19th and early 20th century. Even the Volkswagen rear engine car was anticipated by a 1904 patent for a cart with the horse at the rear.
41. The passage is mainly about
[A] an approach to patents
[B] the application for patents
[C] the use of patents
[D] the access to patents
[答案] D
[解题思路]
本题有一定难度。纵观全文，作者首先提出了发明者对于其发明的东西可以用三种方式处理其发明，引出专利这个话题。第二和三段介绍了关于专利的一些情况，而最后两段则进入了本篇文章主要关注的一个方面，即如何得到专利的信息、以及如何把一些专利项目用于商业用途。因此这篇文章的关注点是人们怎么样才能够取得一些获得专利权的发明的相关信息，因此正确答案为D。
[题目译文]
这篇的主要内容是
[A] 关于取得专利的方法
[B] 关于专利的申请
责任编辑:zhaotingting
