The Patent Mafia and What You Can Do To Break It Up

colinneagle sends this quote from an article about the ever-growing patent racket in the tech industry: "The lawsuits are raging all across the tech world. Oracle sues Google, Yahoo sues Facebook, they counter-sue. Others threaten, others buy more patents and the circle goes round and round. Don't be fooled by the lawsuits between these tech titans though. The real cost that the patent mafia extracts from the tech world is on the smaller companies who can't afford to battle the Apples and Microsofts of the world. Their choices are far simpler. They can abandon their innovations or they can choose to pay and allow the Mafiosos to wet their beaks. Also, don't be fooled about who the real losers are here. The the real losers are you and me. ... So what do do? Here is my opinion. I would make it just as expensive for the offensive patent prosecutors. Just as the government put in the RICO act to combat organized crime, I would put a similar law in place on patents. RICO calls for treble damages. I would have treble awards of costs and legal fees. If a patent holder sues another entity for patent violation and that suit fails, the plaintiff who brought the suit should pay treble damages to the defendant. Three times what the defendant paid to defend."

Comments

2 big lies block patent reform.

[dweller_below]

The patent debate has fallen victim to 2 big lies:

• 1) Patents are good. More patents are more good.
• 2) Patents belong to the patent holder.

Patents are monopolies. Years ago, they were monopolies of action. Modern software and business method patents are monopolies of action, expression, and speech.

Monopolies are expensive. They damage free markets. They always drive up the cost of goods and services. They are taxes on market places. We have forgotten that patents are monopolies. Somehow the patent lawyers have convinced us that patents are a measure of innovation. This great lie has blinded us to the fact that patents actually measure the decay and destruction of free markets.

The second lie is actually more pernicious, since it blocks our pathway forward. Patents actually belong to society, not the patent holder. Patents are restrictions imposed on EVERYBODY BUT the patent holder. Patents are voluntarily imposed on a society, by that society, for the good of the society. If a patent was the property of the patent holder, it would be worthless, since no patent holder has the ability to enforce a patent. Only society has the ability to enforce a patent.

Since patents belong to society, then they can (and ultimately must) be managed for the good of society.

Once we dispel these 2 grand deceptions, the way forward is fairly clear:

• First, we must stop the hemorrhaging. Our society can't tolerate a patent office that produces enormous numbers of crappy patents. The damage to our economy is literally in the trillions of dollars. A limited nuclear exchange on US soil would be less expensive. We must shutdown the patent office until we can figure out how to restructure it to produce limited numbers of high quality patents.
• Second, we must produce a method to cheaply dispose all our toxic, crap patents. Litigating them would destroy us. We need a cheaper way to get rid of them. The best would be an executive order (or legislative act) disabling every patent granted (or in process) for the last 20 years.

I suspect we can ultimately fix almost all our patent problems by returning the patent office to central funding. Funding the patent office from patent fees has got to be our greatest mistake.

Miles