Patent Reform Is Dead; Patent Trolls Win
from the dead-dead-dead dept
As we predicted on Monday, it appears that patent trolls have won this round. Senator Patrick Leahy has announced that he's pulling patent reform from the agenda because there wasn't "sufficient support behind any comprehensive deal." That's bullshit. There is widespread consensus support on how to fix the problem of patent trolls. The problem is that patent trolls and organizations that abuse the patent system to prey on innovators don't like the solutions that are out there. And they started lobbying hard, so patent reform is dead. That is, rather than do the right thing and step up to fix the broken patent system, Leahy and others in the Senate caved in to lobbyists from patent abusing entities (not just trolls). Of course, we went through this same thing in 2004 through 2011 with the last attempt at fixing the patent system, and the end result there was useless.One of these days, it would be nice if Congress actually took real leadership and did what was right, rather than worrying how some abusive companies will react.
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Filed Under: lobbying, patent reform, patent trolls, patents, senator patrick leahy
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Saving face or as intended?
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Re: Saving face or as intended?
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Re: Re: Saving face or as intended?
1) Make a lot of noise about 'patent reform'.
2) A bunch of companies/groups panic, and start throwing out 'campaign donations'.
3) Bill is dropped(for now, while the coffer is full), due to claims that it 'doesn't have enough support'.
And anytime funding starts getting a little tight, just start from the top and repeat as needed.
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EFF reads Leahy pronouncement
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to go about it....
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Simple
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Surprise?
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Re: Surprise?
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Re: Surprise?
Eh. Not a surprise, really. I was talking to people yesterday who still believed it would go through -- and there was a camp of people working very hard all day yesterday to make it go through. But, it was dead on arrival.
The "surprise" was that rather than allowing them to reach a deal Harry Reid supposedly called up Leahy and told him to kill it, because the trial lawyers weren't happy. Schumer and others are angry, but Leahy isn't strong enough to stand up for what's right. Reid just pulled rank on him and Leahy folded.
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They don't really depend on the peanuts they get each month from the public coffers. They are getting well-greased by corporate lobbyists so it does not hurt them to bend over.
What they do need is a substantial portion of the public to believe in having no choice but vote for one of the two established organized crime syndicates.
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To be fair, the bigger problem is that are also organizations that don't abuse the patent system, but have patents, but fear that any solutions that stop the trolls will also hurt them a little bit. Since it can be sometimes difficult to distinguish between trolls and abusive use of patents from more legitimate users, laws restricting patent trolls will likely hurt the revenue somewhat of groups that even most of us agree aren't trolls, like universities, which opposed this bill (Though some of us are suspicious of universities and how they use patents). And they aren't willing to take a hit for the good of everyone else in stopping the trolls.
If it were just trolls and abusers opposing this law, it wouldn't have been killed. What killed it is that pretty legitimate patent holders that do real research, like universities, opposed it, out of fear for their own revenue, and not caring enough about everyone else's problems that the trolls cause, even if the universities aren't trolls themselves.
That's a common problem in politics. Sometimes when you take action against Type I errors, you create more Type II errors. Often the balance in taking correction action is worth it (like I think this bill would have been)-- but you can't expect the people who are harmed by Type II errors but not Type I errors not to complain. (In a completely different field, imagine the tradeoffs in civil liberties that sometimes mean a choice between letting more murders and rapists go free, or convicting more innocent people.)
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It just means you disagree about the relative likelihood of Type I and Type II errors with the current regime, and the proper balance to strike between them.
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In fact if a university did sue for infringement on products it doesn't sell they would be patent trolls. That would be an abuse of the system. Likewise a university may conduct research on patented products for academic purposes and still not infringe.
So the difference between a university and a business that should make universities not subject to acquiring patents is that universities exist for academic purposes while businesses exist for profit.
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If they wouldn't have screwed up the process and the law so badly they wouldn't need to fix it!!!
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Patent Reform Is Dead
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Re: Patent Reform Is Dead
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'nuff said.
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Patents inflame cupidity
We already knew in 1851.
"Comprehensive patents are taken out by some parties, for the purpose of stopping inventions, or appropriating the fruits of the inventions of others, &c. Such Consequences, more resembling the smuggling and fraud caused by an ill-advised tax than anything else, cause a strong suspicion. that the principle of the law from which such consequences flow cannot be just."
I OCRd/transcribed the whole article:
http://seegras.discordia.ch/Blog/voices-against-the-patent-system-the-economist-1851/
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patent reform
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Re: patent reform
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Bullshit is the perfect noun and adjective
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Re: Bullshit is the perfect noun and adjective
Yes, there is one thing sacred to these people.
-------------------Money-------------------
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Senator Leahy needs to go
Is he actually trying to reform the patent system? Or is he running a racket on the patent trolling industry to get a piece of the pie?
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Re: Senator Leahy needs to go
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The American Way
Well, as long as Trolls and other extortion racket enterprises can legally bribe greedy politicians to kill any real anti-extortion legislation, the chances of Congress "doing what is right" are absolutely non-existent - unless of course, you mean "doing what is right for congress-critters" to fulfill their yacht addiction.
I mean lets face it folks. Which would you choose?
Do the job the public thinks congress-critters are supposed to do and make copyright extortion illegal and aid innovation and save a lot of people a ton of cash, or....
Do what you actually joined congress for, and enjoy the wonders of a 100 foot yacht, with bikini-clad giggling bimbos and pounds of 80% pure cocaine, while counting the ever-growing bribery proceeds stashed away in your off shore accounts.
It is the American Way after all.
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