The Patent Shakedown
from the we've-got-4,000-patents... dept
Gary Reback (famous for taking on Microsoft a number of years ago, among other things) has written a great article in Forbes describing why our patent process is not helping to encourage innovation. As it stands right now, it's being used by large companies to shakedown smaller companies. He gives a great example of IBM lawyers trying to get money out of a young Sun many years ago. After Sun's lawyers (including Reback) explained why the claims the IBM lawyers made were not valid, the IBM lawyers responded, "OK, maybe you don't infringe these seven patents. But we have 10,000 U.S. patents. Do you really want us to go back to Armonk [IBM headquarters in New York] and find seven patents you do infringe? Or do you want to make this easy and just pay us $20 million?" There's little evidence that the current patent process does much to boost innovation, and there are some studies that suggest it does more to hurt innovation. However, it appears unlikely to change because the government is raking in cash from patent applications, patent lawyers are raking in cash from patent filings and patent lawsuits, and big companies are raking in cash from the patent shakedown.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
