After reading your March 28 article “Loss of patent program a huge blow to Maine inventors,” I, too, am saddened that the free legal service offered by the University of Maine School of Law, the Maine Patent Program, will be terminated.

Unfortunately, the law school is in the midst of making deep budget cuts, as it, too, is feeling the effects of a sluggish economy.

The PPH article highlighted an inventor named Dan Kidd, an innovator who was helped by the Maine Patent Program and is now, according to the story, a “wealthy man.”

Here’s an idea: Why don’t Mr. Kidd, and the hundreds of other inventors that it assists each year, help fund the program and keep it in place? Or maybe there could be a requirement that if the patent program is successful in their defense, then the patent holder agrees to pay back to the program and help make it self-sufficient.

It seems like a simple solution since Mr. Kidd says, “It changed my life, really.” It’s also sad that they idly stand by and watch it die.

Alan B. Peoples

Scarborough