Obama Orders Regulators to Root Out ‘Patent Trolls’

New York Times ^ | June 4, 2013 | Edward Wyatt

[proxy_user]

WASHINGTON — One company threatened to sue 8,000 coffee shops, hotels and retailers for patent infringement because they had set up Wi-Fi networks for their customers. Another claimed that hundreds of small businesses were violating its patents by attaching a document scanner to an office computer system. One claimed rights to royalties from anyone producing a podcast.

Now the Obama administration is cracking down on what many call patent trolls, shell companies that exist merely for the purpose of asserting that they should be paid because they hold patents that are being infringed by some software or electronic process.

[proxy_user]

Well, so much for the patent on selling goods for money...

[cuban leaf]

I worked for a large cell phone company and supported their legal department. There are people out there that will reverse engineer a cell phone and try to identify parts of its functionality that are not patented. They will then patent it and then sue the company for violating their patent.

We had a whole subsection of our legal department devoted to dealing with this crap.

The wright bro’s tried to patent flying.

[quimby]

That surge can be traced partly to the very law that was supposed to stamp out some of the trouble. The America Invents Act, signed in 2011, made it illegal to file a single lawsuit claiming a whole bunch of defendants had infringed a patent in the same way. Now, a patent holder must file individual lawsuits against each company, which has caused the number of lawsuits to soar, patent experts say.

In other words, obama is acting to couteract the effects of a law he singed 2 years ago. obama must have read about it in the papers.

[9YearLurker]

I think they gave Monsanto that patent.

[backwoods-engineer]

Well, that's rich. After Obama and his minions changed the US from "first to invent" to "first to file" patents, companies, legitimate and otherwise flood the patent office with paperwork filled with generalities, hoping they can get anything to stick. Then, when they get hold of a patent with such broad claims that whole industries and indeed, common ways of doing things fall under it, the troll and sue.

Yes, patent trolls existed before the Won. But he and his minions have made it worse.

[circlecity]

"There are people out there that will reverse engineer a cell phone and try to identify parts of its functionality that are not patented. They will then patent it and then sue the company for violating their patent."

While I have no doubt there are those who try this, any such patent they obtain would be invalid on the basis of the "Prior art" doctrine.

[cuban leaf]

While I have no doubt there are those who try this, any such patent they obtain would be invalid on the basis of the “Prior art” doctrine.

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That was my take as well. It seems there is more to it than that though. I just forgot what it was.

[Dixie Yooper]

I might have to postpone filing my patent for using Photosynthesis to turn CO2 into O2.

[foxpro2]

In 1879, a Rochester lawyer named George Selden applied for a U.S. patent for a road vehicle powered by a gasoline engine.

[calex59]

The wright bro’s tried to patent flying.

Their patent claims were mostly against Curtis, because he used ailerons to control his turns, and they claimed he usurped their wing warping method. While they both accomplished the same thing, they are not identical and I think their claim was wrong and arbitrary(I believe they eventually lost the claim).

They spent so much time in patent fights that they lost out on aircraft sales and on chances to improve their aircraft.

[Sequoyah101]

And who could not see this coming when, at the first of this year, obastard changed the patent law from first to invent to first to file.

The trolling will only get worse as long as this insanity goes on. So what if it is “like the rest of the world”? Does that make it right? NO.

We should be afraid to write technical papers and they should dry up. Ditto with articles in trade journals. They should dry up since anyone can file a patent now and claim inventorship and ownership. First to file baby. To hell with prior art and invention conception.

Obastard creates problems to be a hero in “fighting” them.

[Sequoyah101]

The Wrights were stretching a lot weren’t they? Something can always be improved. Just a fact of life.

[MaxMax]

There are people who will take new inventions and patent a similar idea
then sue the original patent holder. That's how they make a living, and most
who do this are Patent attorneys who can hold out and file indefinitely pro-bono.

[cuban leaf]

There are people who will take new inventions and patent a similar idea
then sue the original patent holder. That’s how they make a living, and most
who do this are Patent attorneys who can hold out and file indefinitely pro-bono.

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That pretty closely describes what was challenging our legal department.

People used to ask me why I was not angry with my former wife divorcing me but I WAS angry at the government. I said people act badly all the time, but when the government empowers that activity, it is a whole different animal.

My problem in these patent cases is not with the guy s who have the patents. It is with the government supporting their very bad behavior with the power of the gun.

[Bob]

The patent trolls are looking for situations where they can tie up a company in legal proceedings. Even if you can claim prior art, you still have to go to court and prove it. That gets expensive in both time and money. When the cost to fight exceeds the cost to settle, the bean-counters can make a strong case for buying off the patent troll.

[MaxMax]

I've read that copywriting at the same time an invention is sent in for Patent
covers a lot of legal grounds and prevents many lawsuits or thefts of proprietary property.
Some say no, but many say yes. I'm not talking about software, but actual brick and mortar
inventions like the Hammer.

Taking into account of the many ways that theft is legally done, I would guess that
covering every aspect of an idea would be of benefit such as including every angle
on the same patent, or separately.

I'm inquiring because I have one that's been in the works for years
and I've read the horror stories, and about the lives ruined forever.