About patent trolls

Posted by WWJGD 9 years, 4 months ago to Legislation
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I left this community nearly three years ago when khalling started defending patent trolls. I've come back only to post when something pertinent to that topic comes up on the intar-webs.

This is one of those occasions.

Patent trolls are are no John Galt or Hank Reardon: they have innovated NOTHING. They have produced NOTHING. They are Peter Keating: a man whose career consisted of stealing other people's ideas, and taking credit for them in the public eye.

This is the best article to come along in a long time regarding these filthy, slimy creatures. I hope you will read it.

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  • Posted by khalling 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    my husband is a EE with a masters in Physics and a law degree. The patent exam-after the bar exam and multi-state exam is the least passed legal exam. do you think he does anything vaguely?! gah!
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  • Posted by khalling 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    see-this is where you are completely clueless. Dale takes DAYS to write patent applications. Once the Examiner picks it up MONTHS to ARGUE over specifics. how insulting!
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  • Posted by khalling 9 years, 4 months ago
    HEY! sorely missed you! hang out. we had alot of fun and it has been woeful in here lately! I'll catch you up. Maph and LS have left. so-fewer to banter with. what have you been up to?
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  • Posted by $ WilliamShipley 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If that were the case, as it should be, then everything would be fine. The problem comes when the patent is vague and unclear and does not help people become aware of anything new and is not actually used to make a product,

    Instead the patents are held by patent trolls who sue companies claiming that their independently created products infringe on the vague language of the patent. Faced with fighting a multi-million dollar battle and being at risk they pay the troll and go on with the product that they designed.

    They do this even if they believe the patent is flawed because they cannot afford the risk.
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  • Posted by Zenphamy 9 years, 4 months ago
    I think that most forget what a patent is; whether it's for a process, a device, or a combination--it's mainly an idea and an advancement to the public. With a patent, it becomes available to everyone to learn of, and knowledge and technical advances happen. Without the availability of a patent, the idea stays undeveloped, or hidden. The development of an idea into a workable process, device, or combination also costs the inventor or someone a lot of money. How do you imagine anyone to be able to recover those costs, much less make a profit without that patent.

    Are there abuses? There are abuses of everything in this world. Maybe it's not the patent aggregators that are the problem--maybe it's a judicial system that needs some thought.
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  • Posted by InfamousEric 9 years, 4 months ago
    Patents, just like copyrights have become nothing more than a government sponsored limitation on innovation.

    Another system to manipulate, another government sanctioned monopoly.

    I'm not saying that intellectual property shouldn't be protected, but perhaps our current system goes overboard and protects for an excessive time frame.

    I'm by no means an expert on this topic, but what would be the drawback of limiting protection to 5 year terms?

    This may also help combat the issue WWJGD brings up.
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