Re: Patent Squatting

["z" <rmwbsee@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes I am still wondering what is out there.
I am Moving foward with assembly jigs.


"Dave" <dju@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:s9vea1lostspcgsbkjoconh07p29fl02h3@xxxxxxxxxx
> What I was calling Patent Squatters is called Patent Trolls
> by Big Brother.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- The high-tech industry calls them
> ''patent trolls'' -- people who get patents for products
> they never plan to make, just so they can sue for
> infringement if a company does turn out something similar.
>
> That is how critics describe the inventor from Great Falls,
> Va., whom Internet giant eBay wants to take to the Supreme
> Court over online selling techniques he patented.
>
> Now Congress, urged on by a coalition of high-tech companies
> that includes eBay, wants protection against such people.
>
> ''I think patent trolls are abusing the system,'' said Rep.
> Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who wrote the bill.
>
> The first major changes to patent law since 1999 are running
> into opposition from drug makers, fearful an overhaul could
> stifle their ability to bring innovative products to the
> market.
>
> A bill introduced in the House on Wednesday would make it
> harder for patent-holders to get court orders to stop the
> sale of products that potentially infringe on their patents.
> Challenging a patent would become easier.
>
> Also, the legislation would commit the U.S. to international
> standards on patent registration: The patent goes to the
> inventor who files first.
>
> Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on
> intellectual property, co-sponsored the bill with the
> committee's top Democrat, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif. A
> hearing was set for Thursday.
>
> The Information Technology Industry Council, which
> represents eBay and other high-tech companies, says patent
> lawsuits in federal court doubled from 1,200 to 2,400
> annually from 1998 to 2001.
>
> ''The broken patent system right now, and the rise in
> lawsuits, has unfortunately discouraged our companies from
> innovating, and patent trolls are gaming the system,'' said
> Josh Ackil, the group's vice president of government
> relations.
>
> The boom of the 1990s led to a rush to patent new kinds of
> technology, some of which was poorly understood at the time,
> the industry says.
>
> Unlike high-tech businesses, pharmaceutical companies do not
> have the same problems with ''patent trolls'' because drug
> formulas generally are more difficult to develop than
> computer technology.
>
> ''Any attempts to change or weaken current patent laws could
> have a profound impact on our companies' ability to create
> new innovative drugs and save lives,'' said Ken Johnson,
> senior vice president at the Pharmaceutical Research and
> Manufacturers of America.
>
> Representatives of PhRMA, the Biotechnology Industry
> Organization, high-tech groups and others failed in recent
> meetings to reach agreement on possible changes to patent
> law.
>
> A judges now can issue an order to protect patent rights.
> The House bill would allow orders only if the patent-holder
> would suffer irreparable harm without one.
>
> High-tech companies contend that judges grant orders almost
> automatically, giving too much power to patent-holders.
>
> But lawyers and small-time inventors like Tom Woolston of
> Virginia, who took on eBay, say court orders are not so
> common and that problem of patent trolls is exaggerated.
>
> Woolston defended his five-person company, MercExchange, as
> a legitimate business that, before the court case with eBay,
> hoped to develop online sales techniques. EBay lost in a
> lower court and wants the Supreme Court to take the case.
>
> The proposed legislation would favor big companies, Woolston
> said. ''If you didn't have your owner's right of patent --
> which is the ability to stop somebody from using the
> invention -- how can a small company raise money to build an
> invention?'' he asked.