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Government Lawyer Says Patent Trolls Are a 'Concern'
New submitter gale the simple writes "While it is fairly common for the jaded and cynical to ride on the lawyers these days (often including Henry VI's famous line about them), every now and then we can see that they are not always the plague and scourge of the earth. EFF again shows that even lawyers can do good in this world. (PDF) All jokes aside, something seems to have moved. Maybe all that bloodletting between the major corporations (Apple vs Samsung) made the leaders recognize that MAD world of patents might not be very stable."
From the EFF: "The Congressional Research Service (CRS), the research division of Congress known for its objective studies, recently released a report on the effects of patent trolls on innovation and the economy. ... According to the CRS report, 'The vast majority of defendants settle because patent litigation is risky, disruptive, and expensive, regardless of the merits; and many [patent trolls] set royalty demands strategically well below litigation costs to make the business decision to settle an obvious one.' Businesses lose both time and money, and innovation suffers."
MAD only works because everyone dies, no one profits. The patent situation is almost an inverse MAD... the worse things get the more profit there is to be made and the more risk there is to not playing the game. Any public company basically has to behave this way, otherwise their shareholders will string them up or one of their competitors will become more profitable because they ARE playing.
Sure, this report may say that current patent law stifles innovation, but that is a long, long way from rewriting the law. In my cynical view thes report will get shelved, and if any legislation does occur, the large corporations and lobbies with an interest in maintaining the status quo will line enough pockets to make sure it fails or gets watered down and altered enough to suit their needs. Remember entrenched power, money, and "it will hurt the economy to change", trump common sense and innovation.
Silence is a state of mime.
Last night my wife was commenting that the guy who wrote 'Modernist Cuisine' had a new book coming out aimed at non-professional chefs..
I said "Isn't that the one by Nathan Myhrvold?" "Yeah, how'd you know?" "You know who he is, right?" "Well, he's a french chef who likes liquid nitrogen." "He owns Intellectual Ventures."
"Oh my god, he's a fucking patent troll!" "King of the patent trolls, dear." "Can I just pretend he isn't and buy the book?"
Humm, so the government (and therefore it's industrial masters) have now decided that patent trolls must go. I somehow doubt if this will benefit us one bit.
Most likely planned end scenario (still years of lobbying away) is that large tech firms will be allowed to 'take over' patents of anyone who lacks the resource to fight them.
A few of the bigger patent farmers might well survive this, but the wannabees will go under. Unfortunately, so will any real engineer with a genuinely good idea they have patented.
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
This story has been filed in violation of my patent on Patent Troll stories posted to Web Sites, patent no. 7640598 D607176 PP20622 RE41067 H002234. I am requesting $5.40 to cover my Veggie Sub at subway for lunch.
For those of you unfamiliar with Shakesphere:
In Act IV, Scene 2 of Henry VI Part 2, Dick says "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
I thought the point of Henry VI's famous line about them was that to take over and trample on people's rights, first you have to get rid of the lawyers.
Both companies bring products to market, so by definition they are not patent trolls.
Oh wait, mentioning iOS vs Android results in clicks!!
Continue on.
There are many "good" objective people who work for the government and submit reports to Congress (lawyers, scientists, accountants... Even IRS agents), however, it is important to understand that "objective people" do not make decisions for congress. They are not the "leaders" that the submitter is calling them and they have no power. The "leaders" are the representatives and senators, whose job is to cherry pick the reports for facts/out-of-context-statements that agree with their opinions. This has been going on for quite some time... After all, Benjamin Franklin wrote of the three degrees of lies, "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics."
It too profitable accept any patent, prior art or not.
-The USPTO get fees paid for every submission
-If the patent is invalidated, the USPTO is not affected in any way.
-The USPTO has a monopoly on the situation.
Whenever you have a business doing something that the government should be doing you get issues like this. (e.g. The Fed, Private Prisons, etc.)
Oh, the USPTO *is* part of the government?
It sure doesn't act like it.
http://www.longest.com/2011/05/11/federal-government-slows-innovation-on-intentionally/
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Prosecutor says he will go for the maximum sentence if you don't take his deal.
This gets trotted out fairly often. The counter argument is this:
You (John Q. Public) create something actually innovative and legitimately patentable, and do so.
So does Apple, or Google, or any other huge company.
You realize they're using your invention, so ask them to pay you for it. They say no. Litigation ensues.
You spend a few thousand on your brother Vinny's legal services. They trot out a crack stable of lawyers at $300/hour/lawyer. They do a tremendous amount of analysis and preparation before their slam dunk victory.
You get stuck with a $500,000 bill because they bought better lawyers than you did.
In short, a system like this is massively disadvantageous to the little guy. Loser pays for frivolous lawsuits? Perhaps. Merely for losing? No.