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Inventors Protest Patent Reform Bill

Posted by Zonk on from the sticky-wicket dept.

narramissic writes "A group of inventors and U.S. company execs, among them Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and the AutoSyringe, and Steve Perlman, inventor of WebTV and lead developer of Apple Inc.'s QuickTime, paid a visit to Washington to encourage Congress to defeat the Patent Reform Act. The inventors say the Act will weaken the patent system, devalue patents, and encourage infringement. A version of the act, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this month, is supported by several large tech vendors including Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco. The big companies hope it will make it harder for patent holders to sue and collect huge damage awards when only a small piece of a tech product is found to infringe."

2 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. From the man who brought us the segway.... by MLCT · · Score: 4, Funny

    inventor of the Segway Oh well - with all the sense to invent (and mercilessly promote) - a machine that ensures people don't even have to walk any more - all in a country with one of the worst obesity problems in the world. If a change in the patent system will stop crap like the segway being invented then it will be a change for the good.
  2. Re:WebTV needed inventing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I must be missing something.. isn't WebTV just Web + TV?

    Just????

    A TV + Set top box is totally different than a monitor + PC. Worlds apart. This guy is right up there with Tim Berners-Lee and Bill Gates in terms of Internet pioneers. Heck, he brought the Internet to ma and pa back in the "dark ages", when the 'Net was still brand new, and Windows 95 had just been released. Three cheers, indeed!