Obama Orders Regulators to Root Out ‘Patent Trolls’

The New York Times ^ | June 4, 2013 | EDWARD WYATT

[indthkr]

... Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and who was a primary sponsor of the 2011 law, said he backs the president’s effort to suppress patent trolls.

“The United States patent system is vital for our economic growth, job creation, and technological advance,” Mr. Leahy said in a statement. “Unfortunately, misuse of low-quality patents through patent trolling has tarnished the system’s image.” ...

[indthkr]

You've got to wonder if the IRS will assist in "identifying" who the patent trolls are - keeping in mind that large corporations (Apple, Samsung, etc.) are some of the largest filers of patent infringement suits.

Also, I'm sure that all patents filed in Vermont will be found to be of only the "highest quality", /sarc.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Only individuals who are not members of the big-government/big-corporate criminal complex will be defined as "patent trolls."

This is nothing but cover for stealing private property of people who are not in the club.

[homegroan]

yes-and “the list” should be interesting...

[Jack Hammer]

Yes, let’s forget all about Benghazi and the IRS - it’s these patent trolls who are really important.

[Red Badger]

What is a ‘patent troll’?................

[Conserev1]

Patent troll is a pejorative term used for a person or company that enforces its patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic, often with no intention to manufacture or market the product. A related, less pejorative expression is non-practicing entity (NPE) which describes a patent owner who does not manufacture or use the patented invention.[1]

[kevkrom]

And, all too often, a “patent troll” isn’t the inventor in the first place, but a company that buys up patents (either directly, or by acquiring the assets of failed companies) for the sole purpose of filing infringement lawsuits.

I.e., patent trolls are to patents what Righthaven was to copyrights.

[DoughtyOne]

Oh my God... we have gifted China with our complete patent database though business practices, and Slum Dog thinks he’ll stop the damage with this?

ROTFL

[bigbob]

Best simple description: a patent holding company.

http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-patent-holding-companies-2012-11?op=1

[DoughtyOne]

I thought it was a person who illegally fills a White House position, but I could be wrong.

LOL

[Red Badger]

So, the Dems are seeking to help companies steal someone else’s intellectual property with no repercussions?.........

[bigbob]

An insidious side-effect of patent trolls is that they make their money mainly through intimidation. Threaten a big company with a lawsuit and 9 times out of 10 their IP staff will say something like “Well, we can probably win in court, but it will cost $X”. The bean counters will then do the math and write a check for some sizable fraction of $X, saving time and money and patting themselves on the back for avoiding a worse outcome.

But who pays? You and me, bucko. A patent troll cost my former employer $300K for a totally baseless allegation just like I’ve described above. Not because we’d infringed, but because $300K was cheaper than the cost to fight the bastards.

[Gamecock]

When I first read the title I thought is said “patient.”

Thought this was going to be an article on death panels.

[Hardraade]

Oh well. Obama must simply nationalize all patents.

[SueRae]

0bama is incapable of original thought. This latest edict is coming FROM the likes of Cisco (see attached) and Apple.

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/113th/03142013_2/Chandler%2003142013.pdf

They are some of the worst patent infringers out there. No mystery as to why Tim cook of Apple put the disgraced former EPA chief, Lisa Jackson on his payroll. It’s insurance. See the latest ITC ruling against Apple on infringing Samsung patents. And...only the President has the power to overturn the ITC (International Trade Commission) Pardon me while I adjust my tinfoil hat.

[Sender]

[Smedley]

FYI, I am a patent attorney. Patent rights are intellectual property, and as property they can be freely assigned, bought, sold or given away.

“Patent trolls” are often individual inventors or small companies who try to monetize their creations, but are overwhelmed by the financial might of big corporations who steal the ideas of others without shame.

Regardless, there is a right for people to buy commodities and reap the financial benefits whether the commodity be stock, bond, patent, deed, futures or whatever.

[Smedley]

“A patent troll cost my former employer $300K for a totally baseless allegation just like I’ve described above.”

Courts allow defendants of baseless patent suits to recover the costs of litigation against both the plaintiff and the plaintiff’s attorney.

This is not to say that people still don’t abuse the patent system, but there are remedies to the worst of such abusers.

[Robert357]

Patent trolls are a blight on the nation. It is time attorneys get their careers ruined over these kind of lawsuits and fined into the poor house.

[The_Reader_David]

Not surprisingly, given that you are a patent attorney, you have correctly described the state of the law. However, there are serious questions as to whether the reification as property of state granted monopolies, which are what copyright and patents have always been since the Law of Queen Anne and the Statute on Monopolies of 1648, the British laws the Founders had in mind when they gave Congress the right "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries,"

• is actually constitutional under a strict construction of the Constitution
• serves the purpose of promoting "the Progress of Science and useful Arts"
• is good policy
• is morally coherent: whatever courts and lawyers may hold, are state granted monopoly rights actually property?

I would suggest that the reification of copyrights and patents as "intellectual property" fails on all four counts, and that reigning in patent trolls, while it is against your own guild interests as a patent lawyer, is good policy, and a good place to start in putting these state-granted monopolies back into constraints originally envisioned by the Founders.