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US Senate Targets Patent Trolls
New submitter jeffkoch writes: Last year, the United States Senate failed to pass bipartisan legislation to combat patent trolls when it was killed by then-Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Congressional-insider newspaper Roll Call reports today that, "Knowing Reid would no longer control the Senate's legislative schedule in 2015, staff for John Cornyn, (a Republican from Texas), and Charles E. Schumer, (a Democrat from New York)", began work in February to assemble a new bill and to build support among fellow members of the Senate. Patent law is usually not a partisan issue, and President Barack Obama has called for getting an overhaul to his desk on several occasions including in his 2014 State of the Union speech. The last overhaul of United States patent law, the America Invents Act, took several years to be developed. The U.S. Congress is likely to act on the proposed legislation before they recess in August. "Patent trolls are taking a system meant to drive innovation and instead using it to stifle job-creating businesses around the country. Main Street stores, tech startups and more are being smothered by the abuse that is all too common in our patent system, and it's time for that to end," Schumer said in a statement. "This bipartisan bill shifts the legal burden back onto those who would abuse the patent system in order to make a quick buck at the expense of businesses that are playing by the rules."
Large corporations will gain protection from patent trolls and small legitimate patent holders.
Really? If you don't think Gohmert is embarrassing then maybe you need to sit at the kids table for a while. Gohmert has me convinced that the House of Representatives is just a massive program for the mentally challenged to get jobs.
Shelia Jackson Lee is horrible, but Gohmert isn't fit for ANY job.
The biggest problem appears to be allowing wide interpretations of patents and ignoring what would be obviousness in the eyes of most practitioners. Here are some suggestions:
1) A jury-like panel of practitioners to judge obviousness.
2) Spell out that merely emulating common physical actions or behaviors should not be patentable, only specific algorithms of such emulation.
3) Reject the mere combining of existing ideas unless the combining is judged non-obvious (#1).
4) Limiting the percentage of revenue a medium or large company can receive from patent royalties.
5) An independent quality review board to make sure approved patents are not overly broad. They'd randomly sample patents.
Table-ized A.I.
Way to point out the obvious....of course they will.
But the lobbyists on BOTH sides will descend and americans only get to grab the popcorn and watch to see whose corporate money wins.
American "democracy" in action....
Sen. Reid said that the reason they didn't bring it to a floor vote is that Senators from both parties had made it clear they would filibuster the bill, so there would be no vote.
There were some good reasons for the resistance. Some of the compromises made in the Senate to the bill last year were a gift to large companies because it would limit the rights of those seeking redress for patent infringement.
Even Sen. Leahy, the bill's primary sponsor in the Senate admitted that. He said,
Source
Does anyone else care to bet that any bill coming out of the Senate to curb "patent trolls" is going to end up extending patents even longer and basically making the patent system even worse? Does anyone believe that the result of this legislation will be patent law that does a better job of encouraging innovation?
John Cornyn and Chuck Schumer are two of the biggest corporatists in the Senate. They're not looking to make the patent system work better for anyone but their donors. I don't trust them to do anything good when it comes to intellectual property laws.
You are welcome on my lawn.
..the lobbyists descend like vultures and kill the bill in 3....2....1....
Probably not; who do you think actually wrote the bill?
Of course, what you think the bill is meant to do and what the bill actually accomplishes may be worlds apart.
I saw a pro-patent commercial just a few minutes ago on a news site. The absurdity of the message caught me. "Inventors will top inventing if the patent laws are weakened". What an utter load of horseshit. How about we return those patents to 1789 rules and let the cards fall.
When it comes to stuff like this, it's better to go straight to the source, rather than repeat things you've heard.
Senator Reid did not "all but admit" to lying. Take a look at the actual interview, starting at 2:45 in the video:
There is no admission of deceit, just an admission that it was politically motivated.
Nah. Truly ignorant cunts (your word) quote that line without ever realizing that it doesn't mean what they want it to mean. That is ignorance in the true meaning of the word.
And also use sexist "insults" because they are threatened by females, but always deny that.
You are assuming that the parties are monolithic blocks, which is incorrect. Many of them will grandstand on an issue that is not supported by their party if they think it will help their reelection, and some will do it for ideological reasons even if their party is on the opposite side.
BOTH parties are trying to centralize control. Both parties are trying to do what different constituencies want. And both are actually more interested in supporting the goals of unspoken backers. Neither of them puts the good of either the country or of the citizenry first, but both will take stands that allow them to claim to do so...to different constituencies.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.