Patent War: Obama's Executive Order
Obama is making a move for the tech industry, and finally beginning to rain the fiery hammer upon Patent Trolls.
Right now, 61% of patent infringement lawsuits come from Patent Assertion Entities, which are:
"typically shell organizations with no other interests but to hoard intellectual property and frighten fragile small businesses into legal settlements.
These past years we've seen some pretty broad patents (or attempts at patenting) things like "One-Click Buy" (Amazon), "Pull to Refresh" (Twitter), and etc. etc. But ludicrous patent litigation isn't a new thing, and it's been an economy ball-buster for quite some time, and actually, quote Professor Mark Lemley from Stanford Law:
The Wright brothers threatened to sue anyone who commercialized a plane with an aileron (the little flaps on wings that extend up during landing). “It was not until the government stepped in in 1917 and required the Wrights to license their patents that airplane innovation really took off,”
Broad patent litigation hasn't been dealt with since pen hit paper in the writing of the Constitution in good old 1787, where intellectual property rights were handed to the people.
Anyway, here's the three things Barack Obama's Executive Patent Order will tidy up.
1. Broad Properties Litigation
Gone will be the days of Company X, suing Company Y for designing a similar, circular home button, because the Executive Order is going to mandate to narrow down litigation to a "specific way of accomplishing a task, as opposed to all ways of accomplishing a task,” explained the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a blog post about the executive order.
Company X would have to find out if Company Y is using say, the same gesture pattern to unlock the device.
2. Simplicity
To adhere to the title, this one would be the ruling to affirm that Amazon cannot patent a "One-Click Buy" button.
3. Hoarded Property Rights in Shell Companies
Patent Assertion Entities will no longer be able to hide and stock away their hundreds of hoarded patents into shell companies, because they will now have to disclose specific owners of a litigated patent.
Closing Questions
1. What do you guys think of the start to the patent overhaul?
2. Do you see any obvious leaks or know of any matters not covered by the executive order?
3. We have some Entrepreneurs around, so have any of you ever been blindsided by Patent Trolls?
So I never took a ton of civics classes, but I'm confused about how an executive order can affect patent law.
Isn't this a realm of congress or the courts? I thought the executive branch could only enforce laws passed by congress, and it was the job of the judicial system to overturn problematic laws.
An executive order is any directive issued by the leader of the executive branch. They are usually used to direct certain tasks or actions to Cabinet members and other executive officers. Some executive orders even have the “force of law” when permissions are given by the Senate or House of Representatives.
There is a good This American Life podcast about the patent wars/patent trolls that recently aired, highly recommend and will shed some light on what is going on here.
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