Government Lawyer Says Patent Trolls Are a 'Concern' 91
New submitter gale the simple writes "While it is fairly common for the jaded and cynical to ride on the lawyers these days (often including Henry VI's famous line about them), every now and then we can see that they are not always the plague and scourge of the earth. EFF again shows that even lawyers can do good in this world. (PDF) All jokes aside, something seems to have moved. Maybe all that bloodletting between the major corporations (Apple vs Samsung) made the leaders recognize that MAD world of patents might not be very stable."
From the EFF: "The Congressional Research Service (CRS), the research division of Congress known for its objective studies, recently released a report on the effects of patent trolls on innovation and the economy. ... According to the CRS report, 'The vast majority of defendants settle because patent litigation is risky, disruptive, and expensive, regardless of the merits; and many [patent trolls] set royalty demands strategically well below litigation costs to make the business decision to settle an obvious one.' Businesses lose both time and money, and innovation suffers."
Government == Big Tech (Score:4, Interesting)
Humm, so the government (and therefore it's industrial masters) have now decided that patent trolls must go. I somehow doubt if this will benefit us one bit.
Most likely planned end scenario (still years of lobbying away) is that large tech firms will be allowed to 'take over' patents of anyone who lacks the resource to fight them.
A few of the bigger patent farmers might well survive this, but the wannabees will go under. Unfortunately, so will any real engineer with a genuinely good idea they have patented.
Re:not quite MAD (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the other key to MAD is that the barriers of entry are very high, so only those with a lot to lose get to play the game.
If you're already the ruler of Elbonia and you have gold-plated toilets, then do you really want to start shooting nukes at the USA?
The problem with patents is that anybody can get one of those trivial ones without building anything. If I have $10k to my name and can afford a $35 filing fee at the courthouse, and I get a patent for phones with microphones in them, why wouldn't I take a shot at the lottery?
The other key to mad is the "assured destruction" bit - as in fire it and you're GUARANTEED to be toast. Google and Apple are still in business, the last time I checked. They have a lot to lose, but don't think that the threat of actually losing it all is credible.
Re:Patent trolls.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually "Modernist Cuisine" seems like an appropriate book for him to try to sell. A veneer of scientific authority and credibility, with all hype underneath.
I'm not saying the book is entirely fraudulent, but at several hundred dollars, that it's not worth the price, and you're better off buying texts by Adria, Achatz, or any of the other excellent chefs working in this area that deserve more credit. If you're really serious, you could go buy a food science text by food scientists who have been working in this area for decades without the recognition they deserve, whose work all these celebrity chefs are based on, and who ultimately deserve almost all the credit for modernist cuisine.
To be honest, I'm skeptical of most assertions of scientific authority in cooking, at least when they're coming from individuals seeking notoriety. If you spend a significant amount of time on one type of cooking, you might realize there are a lot of myths out there. Lately, there have been new myths asserted based on shoddy or misleading science.
Myhrvold's book is entirely in line with his activities as a patent troll: him trying to capitalize on a popular trend after it started long ago, by taking credit for work that was done elsewhere.