Slashdot Mirror
Congress Proposes Strategy For Fighting Patent Trolls
phantomfive writes "Congressman Charles Schumer has written a piece decrying the evils of patent trolls. 'Because of the high cost of patent litigation—the average litigation defense costs a small or midsize company $1.75 million—it is often marginally cheaper for a defendant to pay up front to make the case go away. The average settlement for the same group of companies is $1.33 million....Patent trolls cost U.S. companies $29 billion in 2011 alone.' His solution? Make it easier for low quality patents to be re-examined and rejected by the patent office."
Can't read TFA due to paywall, but does he suggest a reason why re-examining "low quality" patents is a better approach than establishing stricter eligibility criteria and a more rigorous process to weed out "low quality" patents before they're granted?
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
I would just like to point out that the only thing that the IRS did was to take a long time and ask a lot of questions. 501(c)4 organisations can self-designate themselves, so they can go ahead and act like they are a 501(c)4 until the IRS actually denies them. And if they are denied, they would just have to pay back taxes and declare their donors. But, the election is over now, so if they were denied now no one cares anymore who donated to who.
And, if their consciences were clear and their motives were pure, then they wouldn't need to worry about eventually being denied because they wouldn't be. The problem is that most of them were planning on, and did, spend money on politics. I think the whole lot of them should be put in jail (my tax money subsidized their politicking), instead of being lauded on Faux News as "victims". This whole "scandal" is just political manipulation by the Republicans (who do you know of any political affiliation who doesn't like to hate on the IRS) and all of the sheeple like you are falling for it. The real problem is that during this time period the number of 501(c)4 applications doubled (and that doesn't even count the organizations who self-designated) while the IRS budget and workforce was cut.
So, basically, the Republicans have this political philosophy of "starve the beast" (keep government responsibilities the same but cut its budget) but scream when the lack of funds results in government being less effective (at least to their constituents - they are fine when it just affects poor people). And they want to try to project it as some grand conspiracy instead of recognizing it as some overworked government employees trying to be more efficient (god forbid the government actually try to be efficient - then Repubs couldn't get up on their soapbox and preach about how much better the private sector is).