ZDNet discusses issues with first to file provision of HR 2795
ZDNet describes some issues with the "first to file" provision of HR 2795:
Smith's bill, called the Patent Reform Act of 2005, also has drawn the ire of independent inventors, who have said it will unfairly hurt anyone without a battalion of patent lawyers who can race to the Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va. The rule probably would have kept Gordon Gould from being awarded the laser patents he eventually got.
(...)
The compressed calendar has prompted lobbyists on both sides to scramble. Leading the way are litigation-weary companies, including Microsoft, Apple Computer, Intel and Hewlett-Packard, which quietly worked on the details this spring with Smith's aides and have been pressing other members of Congress to sign on ever since.
***
Note that the iPod saga, involving Microsoft and Apple, illustrates some potential issues with first to file. Apart from small inventors, who do not have platoons of lawyers, even a company like Apple can be "lazy" in getting to the Patent Office, as happened in the iPod business.
***ZDNet on patent quality issue:
What's needed, they said, is a radical, bottom-to-top rethinking of the way patents are reviewed and approved, especially those applications seeking patents on programming techniques that should have been obvious to any undergrad in computer science.
"Way too many obvious junk patents have been issued for things that are obvious to any engineer, and those are being used to suppress competition," said Eric Raymond, a free-software advocate. "I don't see this bill fixing that."
Unearthing seemingly bizarre software patents has been made into something of a competitive sport by free-software aficionados. They've spent years laughing at Microsoft's often-successful attempts to patent ideas such as highlighting numbers, adding white space to a document and creating custom "emoticon" smiley faces.
But a serious worry underlies the amusement: What if a company launches a patent attack against open-source programmers? One study released last year estimates that Linux infringes 283 patents, including 27 held by Microsoft.
In a stark warning that patent litigation could open another front in the Linux-Microsoft wars, Mitch Kapor, chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, predicts that the software colossus will wield its fast-growing stockpile of patents against Linux. (Insurance for Linux users is already available.)
Smith's bill, called the Patent Reform Act of 2005, also has drawn the ire of independent inventors, who have said it will unfairly hurt anyone without a battalion of patent lawyers who can race to the Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va. The rule probably would have kept Gordon Gould from being awarded the laser patents he eventually got.
(...)
The compressed calendar has prompted lobbyists on both sides to scramble. Leading the way are litigation-weary companies, including Microsoft, Apple Computer, Intel and Hewlett-Packard, which quietly worked on the details this spring with Smith's aides and have been pressing other members of Congress to sign on ever since.
***
Note that the iPod saga, involving Microsoft and Apple, illustrates some potential issues with first to file. Apart from small inventors, who do not have platoons of lawyers, even a company like Apple can be "lazy" in getting to the Patent Office, as happened in the iPod business.
***ZDNet on patent quality issue:
What's needed, they said, is a radical, bottom-to-top rethinking of the way patents are reviewed and approved, especially those applications seeking patents on programming techniques that should have been obvious to any undergrad in computer science.
"Way too many obvious junk patents have been issued for things that are obvious to any engineer, and those are being used to suppress competition," said Eric Raymond, a free-software advocate. "I don't see this bill fixing that."
Unearthing seemingly bizarre software patents has been made into something of a competitive sport by free-software aficionados. They've spent years laughing at Microsoft's often-successful attempts to patent ideas such as highlighting numbers, adding white space to a document and creating custom "emoticon" smiley faces.
But a serious worry underlies the amusement: What if a company launches a patent attack against open-source programmers? One study released last year estimates that Linux infringes 283 patents, including 27 held by Microsoft.
In a stark warning that patent litigation could open another front in the Linux-Microsoft wars, Mitch Kapor, chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, predicts that the software colossus will wield its fast-growing stockpile of patents against Linux. (Insurance for Linux users is already available.)
posted by Lawrence B. Ebert at 3:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home