U.S. Technology Prowess?
Alan Tonelson
Thursday, February 02, 2006
The most competitive economy in the....
# of U.S. companies among top 10 U.S. patent recipients, 2005: 4
# of Japanese companies among top 10 U.S. patent recipients, 2005: 5
# of Korean companies among top 10 U.S. patent recipients, 2005: 1
# of patents won by U.S. companies in patent top 10, 2005: 7,848
# of patents won by non-U.S. companies in patent top 10, 2005: 8,840
Source: Calculated from "USPTO Releases Annual List of Top 10 Organizations Receiving Most U.S. Patents" Press Release #06-03, January 10, 2006, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,
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I thought all of NTP's patents had been found to be invalid.
Sometimes the patent lawyers use obscure and questionable patents to intimidate and knock the small competitors out of business. Look at Bose for example.
Lawyers are right up there with liberals and terrorists, maybe ahead in areas like these, with regard to damaging the US.
We need legal reform in so many areas - and we need to find a way to do it despite lawyers.
It looks like if the big guys can't win in court they move to Plan B: Change the law.
My uncle, who is employed by a foreign company but works in the US has over a dozen patents on his inventions. While his employer is not a US company, he is an American working in America.
Also have another uncle with several patents. Including one invention that is in the Smithsonian.
Now, how many of the patents were by non US companies that are not in the US and no Americans were involved in the invention process?
I can't get excited about this.
"Patent trolls", in basements, can go look up dead patents and buy them for a song, but huge multinational corporations with billions of dollars in assets can't do the same thing?
They could.
They just don't want to.
What they want to do instead is to make what their own R&D comes up with and sell it, and not give royalties to somebody who came up with it first (they consult the patents on the books to see what's there - let's not be naive here). They make the profit, and roll the dice. Either the guy with the original patent will come forward, and they can settle with him, or they can outlast him and outgun him in a fight.
So, it goes to juries, and the big companies lose because it's obvious that the guy who has the patent came up with the idea first and patented it.
Oh, and the patent "troll" was able to buy the patent from the guy, so why couldn't the company whose business it is to invent things in that sector have done the same thing, at a slightly higher price?
The simple answer is that they don't WANT to.
Sounds to me like the patent system is working precisely as designed.
BUMP
Sent a link to #1 son.
seems to me that it is a matter of not having the money to market a product.
Corporations usually don't tell little guys their research plans.
In addition how about those corporations that do research, find a similar patent and then try and reverse engineer a new but different design.
Seems most of this is just complaints about an even playing field.
Listen and learn.
On July 13, 1943, my father submitted a patent application for his invention: the first portable room window airconditioner that heated and cooled, dehumidified, and cleaned the air of pollutants. On January 6, 1948, he was awarded U.S. Patent 2,433,960.
Immediately after his patent was granted and made public information, General Electric stole it and put my father's invention into production. Over the years they made billions of dollars on his advention. My father, obviously upest, brought a suit against General Electric. As the suit dragged on, GE lawyers met with my father and delivered a message: "We'll drag this out in court until you are bankrupt and have to withdraw your suit." Then, for good measure, they had my father fired from his job as a graduate, licensed mechanical engineer (Massachusetts), license 1185 of July 19, 1945. GE then black-balled him and kept him from getting another job as an engineer. He spent tha last years of his life as a grocer.
So PLEASE, no crap about "patent trolls." My father was cheated out of his life's work, fired from engineering, and never received a dime in royalties for his invention of the airconditioner you now have humming in your window. He said his mistake had been getting a patent and thus making public his work.
I don't see any mention of RIM doing a patent search prior to implementing their product. Their defense as far as I have kept track of it has been that U.S. patent law doesn't apply to them because they are a Canadian company. I think NTP will and should prevail. Of course if you own a Blackberry, you will interpret the law differently.
I hold the patent for web forums. My lawyer will be contacting Jim Robinson.
Hey, isn't that a freeper word? ( After the Brothers Grimm...)