Tech vendors disagree on patent reform
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Legislation that would overhaul the U.S. patent system would hurt innovation and decrease the value of patents, representatives of two tech companies said Wednesday.
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Arguments were heard today in a case whose outcome could require software companies to pay fines for patent-infringing software assembled in other countries.
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Blog: Panel approves slight changes to divisive patent proposal applauded by Silicon Valley firms but leaves key sticking points intact, signaling more political battles lie ahead.
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In unlikely combination, U.S. government and advocates of free and open-source software are backing Microsoft in patent spat with AT&#38;T.
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Some tech groups are beginning to worry that major IT industry priorities, including patent reform, may lose out to other priorities in the U.S. Congress this year.
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As a standards-setting body readies a protocol for radio frequency identification, known as RFID, a bid for royalties from a holder of critical patents has threatened to disrupt the smooth rollout of a technology that could spawn one of the decade's biggest industries.
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(InfoWorld) - Technology industry executives are pushing the U.S. Congress to reform the way patents are issued in order to process them more quickly while also making sure they are legitimate. Patent reform was one of the major issues discussed at the Tech Policy Summit Monday in San Jose, California. Patent reform legislation considered, but not passed, in Congress last year is expected to be reintroduced. Among the key provisions sought is the hiring of more patent review specialists by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which one critic at the conference said has a backlog of as many as 1 million applications. Another provision would make it more difficult for so-called patent "trolls" to acquire a patent, claim another company infringed on it and then force the company to pay a settlement in order to keep its business going. Lastly, reform advocates seek an improvement in the quality of patents, pointing to cases where patents are issued for innovations that are not unique. They also propose a post-patent review process. In a speech Monday night at the summit, Deborah Platt Majoras, chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, endorsed the idea of post-patent review. "Patents are not a driver of innovation, they are an impediment to innovation," said Mark Lemley, a professor of law at Stanford University Law School, speaking at the summit. "Everyone has an example of silly patents, such as the cat exerciser laser pen," Lemley said, but the problems with the patent law are more serious than that. Often, one company asserts a patent right against another company and forces that company to stop production until the patent issue is resolved. "The patent holdup forces the company to settle for more money than the patent is worth," Lemley said. There are also delays in the process of approving patents. SAP AG, the enterprise software maker, once had to wait 44 months until a patent application was approved, said Tim Crean, chief intellectual property officer and a member of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, an industry group advocating reform. An official of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said the agency is planning to hire 1,200 patent specialists in fiscal year 2008. The patent office receives half of its patent applications electronically and wants to increase that number. Last year it approved 350,000 patents. But some at the summit want Congress toÂ move cautiously on patent reform. A group called the Innovation Alliance was recently formed to protect companies that patent technology but don't manufacture it. Taraneh Maghame, vice president and emerging technologies counsel for Tessera Technologies, said attempts to limit the rights of companies to defend patent rights could harm legitimate patent protection efforts of some companies. Tessera develops chip packaging technology and licenses it to chip manufacturers, such as Intel. "Not all of the tech industry is behind patent reform," Maghame said. Close to 300 people, including tech executives, advocacy groups and government officials, were expected to attend the Tech Policy Summit, which continues Tuesday.
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Tech politics watcher Brian Kahin says the patent system should suit different needs, granting one sort of patent for software, for instance, and another for drugs.
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Patent cross-licence deal cover all but cutting-edge techs
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A campaign to raise awareness about software patents has found strong opposition to their introduction in the United Kingdom.
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Key House panel is all for introducing a patent reform bill, but agreeing on details could prove a daunting task.
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(InfoWorld) - Innovation may be tough to define, but the best way to encourage it is to get rid of industry regulations and trade barriers, a group of IT-focused analysts said Wednesday. The U.S. must do a better job of encouraging innovation, said panelists at an ACT (Association for Competitive Technology) forum. But the speakers didn't all agree on how to accomplish that goal. Despite many U.S. lawmakers recently trumpeting their innovation agendas, the problem is that no one has a good way to define and copy innovation, said Veronique de Rugy, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "We know what it does, but we don't know what it is." ACT, an advocacy group representing small and medium-sized IT vendors, released a report on Wednesday calling for the U.S. government to embrace three policies to promote innovation: robust intellectual property protection, market-based international trade, and minimal competition regulation. Countries enacting those three policies, including the U.S., have created the best environments for innovation in the IT industry and other sectors, said Steve DelBianco, ACT's vice president for public policy. DelBianco decried efforts in other countries to block imports of U.S. technology. Countries like France and Norway,Â which have complained about how Apple has tied its iTunes music download service to its iPod player, are attempting to regulate an innovative service for the benefit of a handful of local vendors, he said. Many countries are looking for ways to cultivate innovation, he said. "The answers they seek will not be found in protectionism and centralized industrial policy, but in creating an environment that rewards innovations and embraces competition," he added. While ACT called on governments to take a deregulatory approach to trade and competition, it asked the U.S. and other governments to take action to protect its members' intellectual property. One major problem is the U.S. government doesn't see the large picture when other countries act to stifle U.S. products, said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation think tank. The U.S. reacts in a piecemeal fashion with trade complaints, but it doesn't seem to recognize that tariffs may be part of a national policy against U.S. products, he said. During a recent visit to India, Atkinson told IT leaders there that they depend on the U.S. to fuel their outsourcing industry, but the country maintained the second highest tariff worldwide on the import of U.S. computers. Indian leaders disputed Atkinson's numbers. Atkinson suggested the U.S. government shouldÂ take more action in pointing out such trade imbalances. "I think we're falling asleep at the switch in the U.S.," he said.
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As debate on patent reform began this morning on the floor of the US House of Representatives, twelve amendments made their way through the Rules Committee, all of which appear to be designed to tweak the bill's language rather than insert any "poison pills" that would ensure its failure.
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LAS VEGAS - For the digital lifestyle to become a reality, consumer electronics makers need to overcome one major consumer frustration: incompatible technologies, a panel of experts agreed Friday.
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Ziff Davis - Opinion: It's time for other Linux vendors to follow Red Hat's lead and offer patent infringement protection to their customers.
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Possible deal revives debate over whether tech firm will reinvent itself or become a target.
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While the US Congress continues debate on new patent reform legislation that would likely limit the amount that aggrieved parties could receive in infringement suits, the Supreme Court has agreed with a Justice Dept. request to hear a critical case. Its outcome, one way or the other, may not only impact technology patent law but also how manufacturers mix Intel and AMD parts, and also how - believe it or not - how digital music stores sell MP3 tracks.