Comments on: Patent Trolls Erode the Foundation of the U.S. Patent System

By: patenthitman

patenthitman — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:54:22 +0000

I’d like to suggest a defense to patent trolls and frivolous patent lawsuits!

By: Patent

Patent — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:46:53 +0000

Patent trolls are clearly abusing the system, and I am 100% confident this will become a criminal act very soon. I think it’s very possible that some who are running these patent operations will face prison time.

By: Gena777

Gena777 — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:51:18 +0000

Patent trolls are proving to be a plague on intellectual property and upon innovation; they are private entities that effectively work to bring the federal patent law system to its knees. If enough people keep making noise about the problem, I suspect that certain government entities will eventually have to step up and take action against the practice of patent trolling.
http://www.generalpatent.com/media/videos/patent-troll

By: my goodness

my goodness — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:04:34 +0000

The problem addressed by the patent reform lobbyists is ABUSE. Small companies are blackmailed into paying royalties for “patents” they do not even infringe.
This is possible because the legal fees for the defendant run easily into the 100ks or millions. For many companies, this would mean immediate bancruptcy – even if the claims are not justified !
I sincerely believe that the US Patent system and law requires a very urgent makeover.

By: Wes Schadenfreud

Wes Schadenfreud — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:36:27 +0000

This article is a distortion of reality … Especially that this is the first time more non-Americans than Americans were Applicants this past year. Imagine that! Better yet, why is that?

Our patent system is under attack by those who benefitted greatly when they too were “non-practicing entities” – does IBM really practice all of its patents? And what are they doing with all those under-utilized patents? Off-shoring, laying off workers & researchers, reducing R&D, filing “defensive” patents (what is defensive about innovation?) and spending vast amounts of money lobbying for unneeded change.

Without the 1995 GATT changes (in the interests of international “harmonization”) & the 1999 AIPA changes (which failed to prevent Applicant fees from being diverted to general funding of non-US Patent Office activities), the system would function fine. What is needed is real anti-trust enforcement & a focus on just why there is so much infringement by those who are lobbying for change under dubious intentions.

It is a fact that their pay-outs in lost litigation remains unchanged at 0.11% of revenues since before GATT (http://www.tplgroup.net/legislation/pdf/Analysis103007.pdf) though, with the reduction in patent holder rights, the cost & complexity of filing & maintaining a patent estate has increased dramatically with no discernible change in patent quality. Why is that?

What is so special about the analysis presented above when it ignores the analysis put together by those such as Ron Katznelson, an actual inventor, no less (see, for instance: http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2008/11/patent-reform-n.html; http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1007629; &http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/oira/0651/comments/460-presentation.pdf

Bob & 13 are completely correct. Patents are our industrial policy. Lobbyists & special interests aside, encouraging a nation of inventors would lead to a much brighter future!

I suggest “Paul” should propose a better system if he believes that our first Patent Commissioner, one Thomas Jefferson, did not contemplate the dangers of monopolies in the debates that lead to the Patent Act. This included the issuance of patents by the individual states themselves. And, in line with the Constitution, why are copyrights (Constitution only mentions “writers” and “writings”) being protected to a greater extent than the “discoveries” of “inventors”?

That said, NPEs, including individual inventors, are the basis for all innovation in this country. Our Patent Office is leaps & bounds better than any in the world. And, a patent is akin to free speech – the notion that *anyone* can invent a better mousetrap & get just rewards (”the public notice function” that comes with the protections for “limited times”) is quintessentially American.

All the lobbying & attacks on innovation that have occurred over the past 15 years should be seen through the long lens of history. When was our job creation best? When were our patents truly optimal? How do we get back there? Those who oppose the rights of inventors and members of organizations which contribute to the debate should recognize that patents belong to all Americans. Even the author of this very article – who heads Alliance Security Trust – should at least acknowledge both sides of the arguments.

Wes

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:58:12 +0000

The Constitution does not grant monopoly rights or even mandate that they be granted. Having foreseen that “progress…” *might* be served by doing so, it merely empowers Congress to grant them. Patents are deeply troublesome economic instruments, more monopoly privilege than natural property right, and they should be viewed as such and with the scepticism that Jefferson, Machlup and modern economists have all recognised as appropriate. I agree that NPEs are not the problem (but they are an easy target for blame). Naïve and antiquated IP ideology and empirical and theoretical economic illiteracy are the real problem.

By: Rob Smith

Rob Smith — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:11:40 +0000

Bob and thriteen have no idea what they are talking about. If they were concerned about inventors getting their due, then they would have responded to the argument in the article which stated that the NPEs give the actual inventors little or no money for the patents.

By: thirteen28

thirteen28 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:58:20 +0000

As someone who is a patent practitioner, I totally concur with what Bob Weber wrote in the first comment above. Big companies want the the “right” to use other’s (read “smaller companies with less financial wherewithal”) patented technologies free of any royalties, even though they still vigorously enforce their own patents. “Intellectual property protection for me, but not for thee” should be their motto. As Bob wrote above, NPE’s/Trolls provide a valuable service to enable patent holders the chance to enforce the rights that are ascribed to them in the constitution.

By: Bob Weber

Bob Weber — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:21:29 +0000

NPEs and trolls perform a valuable service by ensuring that patent owners are able to enforce their constitutionally given monopoly rights to practice inventions they have created or purchased. This article represents the whining of mostly large companies who believe that they have a right to practice the inventions of others with out paying royalties and contrary to the rights granted to patent owners.