Re: Patent Squatting

[Dave <dju@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What I was calling Patent Squatters is called Patent Trolls
by Big Brother.


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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.