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Finally, a Bill To End Patent Trolling
First time accepted submitter jellie writes "According to Ars Technica, a new bill introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has received bipartisan support and has a real chance of passing. In a press call, lawyers from the CCIA, EFF, and Public Knowledge had universal praise for the bill, which is called the Innovation Act of 2013. The EFF has a short summary of the good and bad parts of an earlier draft of the bill. The bill will require patent holders who are filing a suit to identify the specific products and claims which are being infringed, require the loser in a suit to pay attorney's fees and costs, and force trolls to reveal anyone who has a 'financial interest' in the case, making them possibly liable for damages."
Never then... Because smart people, who think stuff up, ought to be able to get paid for their ideas. And it should not matter, whether one decided to implement the idea himself, or to sell it to the highest bidder.
The patent trolls with their vague (yet costly) claims are abusing the system, but there is nothing wrong with the basic premise behind the patents.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I've never understood how you can file suit without explicitly listing this.
We've heard about far too many lawsuits which vaguely reference a "set of infringing patents", and I seem to recall that (despite asserting Linux infringes) Microsoft has never actually enumerated the patents Linux is supposed to violate.
Forcing them to disclose who has financial interest in it is a good idea, because one gets the impression a lot of these have a behind-the-scenes actor which doesn't get revealed.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.