Congress Proposes Strategy For Fighting Patent Trolls 96
phantomfive writes "Congressman Charles Schumer has written a piece decrying the evils of patent trolls. 'Because of the high cost of patent litigation—the average litigation defense costs a small or midsize company $1.75 million—it is often marginally cheaper for a defendant to pay up front to make the case go away. The average settlement for the same group of companies is $1.33 million....Patent trolls cost U.S. companies $29 billion in 2011 alone.' His solution? Make it easier for low quality patents to be re-examined and rejected by the patent office."
Congressman? (Score:5, Informative)
Congressman, while generic, usually refers to members of the House. Schumer is a senator.
Re:Congressman? (Score:2, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress
Lower house = The "House".
Upper house = The Senate.
It refers to both.
Re:WSJ Paywall? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130430/22152622896/chuck-schumer-to-introduce-patent-reform-bill-to-make-it-cheaper-to-fight-back-against-patent-trolls.shtml [techdirt.com]
Re:Low Quality (Score:4, Informative)
I *hate* the idea of "Intellectual Property" in general. If you want a governmental power that has overreached its constitutional intent you can't find a better example. However I don't think EVERY patent is low quality. We need *limited* patents and limited copyrights with curbs that make them difficult to use as offensive weapons. They need to be inventor and artist focused instead of corporation focused. And we need patent examiners that have the knowledge and the time to say that patent is B.S.
Of course we aren't going to get that in a corporate dominated government.
Re:Oh, So now only the big boys (Score:5, Informative)
Agree it's hard to believe these days, but he actually, he seems to be one of the good guys.
He previously co-sponsored legislation to help fight bullshit "business methods" patents,
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/another-bill-fix-patent-troll-problem-well-part-it [eff.org]
And now simply wants to extend that to other areas. Text of proposed bill here.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.866 [loc.gov]:
Hat tip to EPP for article.