
Congress takes aim at patent trolls - cduan
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/302881-congress-takes-aim-at-patent-trolls
======
pwg
From the article:

>At a hearing in March, Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) worried that without a proper
definition, lawmakers will "impact adversely a bunch of people we should not
be impacting." Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) warned that legislation targeting
patent trolls could open the door to deny plaintiffs "their right to go to
court in other tort situations."

It is interesting they "see" the problems with overlay broad statutes here,
but with items such as the CFAA/SOPA/PIPA they fail to see just how overly
broad a statute they have created/proposed.

~~~
anonymousab
To a politician, problems are seen in light of helping their most valuable
constituents (MPAA, Apple/MS/Google, etc.) and themselves.

~~~
rayiner
That argument makes no sense. Patent trolls aren't a valuable constituency.
Apple, MS, and Google are.

~~~
chongli
Apple's done plenty of patent trolling of their own. Remember the rounded
rectangle fiasco?

That's all beside the point. If patents are reformed so that only big
corporations like Apple can use them to attack their competitors, what really
will have changed? Sure, the swarm of bees (NPEs) might be gone but we'll
still have to deal with the angry bear. And what of small inventors without
the means to capitalize on their innovations? What will protect them if their
legal power to enforce licensing deals is removed?

~~~
tptacek
In the common definition, "patent trolls" are nonpracticing entities.

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redsymbol
This abuse of overbroad patents - including software patents - isn't your
average bad idea. It is powerfully toxic to innovation. In the global context,
it is literally a threat to human progress. For the USA in particular, patent
trolls are a threat to its continued eminence as a superpower.

So it's strange that some in congress still support the current patent
situation. I want to believe those who serve there are generally smart and
competent, regardless of whether their opinion on something agrees with mine.
But the pro-troll arguments seem massively short-sighted.

Allowing the current situation to continue would be massively harmful to our
descendants. I'm grateful there seems to be swelling bipartisan support to end
it.

~~~
pmorici
"So it's strange that some in congress still support the current patent
situation."

They may just be waiting on the lobbyists' checks to clear, or their
supporters are benefiting from the current situation and hope to maintain it.

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cletus
Here is why patent reform is a problem in US politics.

The Democrats are essentially the political wing of the American Bar
Association. They are bought and paid for and represent the interests of trial
lawyers. Lawyers make a lot of money from the current patent system. This is
the same reason Democrats oppose tort reform to reduce frivolous class action
suits (of course it's all in the name of the little guy getting his day in
court).

The Republicans are beholden to big business (and the religious right). As
much as big players are suffering the death of a thousand cuts in the current
system no one is going out of business because of it. What's more arguably it
hurts the smaller players more.

The patent mess is nothing new. Patents stifling innovation is nothing new.
Benjamin Franklin was notably against patents [1]. The Wright brothers started
a patent war [2] that completely paralyzed the US aviation industry to the
point that when the US entered WWI it was completely incapable of producing
planes and had to buy them from Europe. This eventually took Congressional
action to resolve resulting in the system that exists today (aviation patent
licensing).

Pharmaceuticals are the thorny problem here. It's true that it takes hundreds
of millions to bring a drug to market and it's easy to reproduce so some
protection is required.

But at the same time drug companies spend most of their money on marketing not
research. Patents are effectively extended by slightly changing a molecule
(sometimes making the drug less effective) and getting a patent extension,
which they then push doctors to prescribe (over the generic) leaving consumers
and insurance carriers to foot the bill.

But software is easy. Just get rid of them all. You can't patent mathematical
formula. Algorithms, as all those with even a rudimentary CS education know,
are just mathematical formulae. How the courts haven't worked this out yet is
a mystery.

And of course there are the patents on "swipe to unlock" and similar obvious
"inventions", which should never have been granted in the first place.

If two people can come up with the same idea independently then it probably
shouldn't be patentable. The idea that you can write software that ends up
infringing on any number of patents you know nothing about is beyond scary.

Yet the US continues to push foreign powers to tow the US line on software
patents (with mixed results), which isn't helped by the current Obama
administration, which has to be by far the most IP holder friendly
administration in US history (between the original ACTA, stuffing the DoJ and
the Federal bench with RIAA/MPAA lawyers, pursuing the Swartz case beyond all
reason through the US Attorney, etc ad nauseum).

[1]: [http://movingtofreedom.org/2006/08/31/ben-franklin-on-
patent...](http://movingtofreedom.org/2006/08/31/ben-franklin-on-patents/)

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war>

~~~
WildUtah
_The Democrats...The Republicans..._

It always seems evenhanded to blame both sides.

When Bilsky came to the Supreme Court, there were four justices that signed
onto a dissent suggesting that business methods and software were not
patentable subject matter. They were Stevens, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Ginsburg.
Four justices stood for patentability in general, but just not Bilsky's
patent; they were Kennedy, Roberts, Thomas, and Alito. Scalia joined each
opinion in part.

That's four so-called 'liberal' justices for software freedom and four
'conservatives' for more patents on software. Not exactly an even division of
partisan blame.

In CLS Bank v. Alice before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the
division is more between the generalists (good) and patent specialists (evil).
The CAFC governs federal employment and some international trade matters so
there are some generalists. The patent reform side was one patent lawyer and
four generalists; the unlimited patents side ("everything under the sun made
by man" - actual quote) was four patent lawyers and one with the unusual
specialties of federal employment and intellectual property law. The good guys
were Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Obama appointees and the baddies Reagan-Bush-
Clinton-Bush-Obama, with only a slight and insignificant D/R lead for good, in
contrast to the Supremes.

Maybe Congress is ineffective on both partisan benches and in both houses. It
certainly seems so in recent years. Nevertheless, the courts are where patent
law is made. And there is a clear partisan split between good and evil on our
supreme court.

------
EFruit
Soon: "Company claims patent on democracy; sues entire US Congress, executive
branch "

------
rexreed
I'm usually a Democrat in most voting situations, but in this instance, I
can't find myself agreeing with any of the Democrat positions on this. It
boggles the mind as to whose interests they are serve.

~~~
WildUtah
Those quotes were from a few Democrats from very, very, very poor districts.
They're looking to extract favors for their constituents from financial and
telecom companies in districts where patronage employment is a way of
survival. I wouldn't take that as the view of the Democratic Party.

My post above compares the record of the parties on patent appeals judges and
the split is very different.

Republicans do have an advantage in paying attention to the needs of
entrepreneurs in many cases, though. It's an important thing that Democrats
could improve.

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saosebastiao
I wish they would go after copyright trolls too...unfortunately most of them
depend on copyright trolls for their reelection.

