Project Troglodyte: Trying To Pre-Defuse Possible Patent Trolls In Important Areas

from the interesting-idea dept

Three guys from Finland who have been inspired by the EFF's patent busting project have recently launched a new effort, called Project Troglodyte, which is designed to pre-vet certain patents that they fear have a high likelihood of blocking innovation thanks to trolls.

We want to take the EFF’s idea one step further: we scan for patents that have not YET caused problems, but have potential to do so in the future. We have chosen a few basic criteria:
1. Technologies that will be crucial in the near future.
2. Technologies that are potentially vulnerable to single patents.
3. Technologies that we understand at least somewhat.
4. Sometimes technologies we are just interested in.

We are doing this because we feel strongly about the issue of patent misuse, and want to see innovation that enables a better future. Between us we have quite a lot of experience in creating inventions, protecting them and analyzing patents. We feel that this project is a way to put that experience to good use.

They've already tackled three patents, a cleantech patent (7,739,378), a driverless vehicle one (which is actually just an application, rather than a granted patent) and another driverless vehicle patent (which, bizarrely, is also just an application).

I like the general goal of the effort, but going after applications seems a bit premature based on the goal of the program. Perhaps it will help with some of the new pre-grant review stuff that is making its way into our patent system, but the actual patents will most likely change a lot before they become patents, if they become patents.

Besides, if any patent application is fair game, these guys are barely going to scratch the surface of the problems with the system. At least the EFF focused on patents that actually are a problem. On top of that, part of the real problem with patent trolls is that they take broad patents that no one thinks has anything to do with anything, and suddenly claim that they're being infringed upon in a totally different field. So it's often quite difficult to accurately predict which patents are likely to be troll problems down the road.

While it's great that they want to try to prevent trolling, I'm not sure this will be a particularly effective means of doing so.

Filed Under: patent applications, patent busting, patents, prior art, project troglodyte

EFF's Patent Busting Project Scores Another Hit

from the more-good-news dept

While it's taken quite some time, the EFF has had considerable success with its project to bust ten awful patents. The latest is that the USPTO has agreed to re-examine a patent from Seer Systems involving online music. Again, the really tragic thing about all of this is that the EFF started this patent busting project almost five years ago, and the process is still in its early stages. And that's for ten of the most ridiculous patents you'll find today. Think of what a mess it is to challenge so many other bad patents.

Filed Under: eff, patent busting, patents
Companies: eff, seer systems

EFF Gets Another Victory Over Bogus Patents

from the good-for-them dept

It's been four years since the EFF first announced its bogus patent busting project, where it lined up 10 awful patents that needed to be revoked. While it's taken some time, slowly but surely it's been winning each battle. Back in January, we noted another win, and now the EFF has announced that the Patent Office has rejected all 95 claims on a patent held by NeoMedia. The patent in question covers scanning a barcode and connecting it to a website to look up info about the product. The EFF presented a bunch of prior art that (of course) the Patent Office had failed to consider. This is just the preliminary rejection, so NeoMedia can (and probably will) respond -- but it's going to have to explain why not a single claim survived.

Filed Under: barcode scanning, eff, patent busting, patents
Companies: neomedia