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4. How easy it would be for Congress to make simple modifications to the patent laws so as to preclude this type of trolling Considering that you just said one
by andreyf 16y ago
4. How easy it would be for Congress to make simple modifications to the patent laws so as to preclude this type of trolling
Considering that you just said one of the top lawyers in the nation has started a "patent portfolio company". I'd imagine his influence in Washington alone would make it pretty damned hard for Congress to do anything. Not to sound crass, but someone who is an enormously ambitious lawyer with a lot of money has the wisdom to understand his control over legal risks like the one the changes you propose. If passing the laws you're suggesting were a possibility, he never would have "gone trolling", so to say.
- astine 16y agoI think that he meant easy in the sense of crafting effective legislation (usually a herculean task) and not in the sense of getting that legislation passed.
- grellas 16y agoThe near-term prospects for fixing what is seriously broken with the patent system are very slight. I did a post just the other day on the so-called Patent Reform Act of 2010 and entitled it, "Looking for radical patent reform - look again" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1365788 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1365788). The piece I cite to above is basically a law professor's proposal and hence academic only at this point. It could theoretically work but there is probably little or no impetus behind it. Didn't mean to suggest that the process of reform would be easy. It clearly won't (Bilski might bring some needed sanity to the area of software patents but congressional action is likely to be merely cosmetic along the lines of the Patent Reform Act of 2010 cited above). The entrenched interests are very strong here.