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I wonder, why don't large corporations join forces and lobby the government and congress for changes in patent rules and laws? Of course they themselves may ha
by nopinsight 16y ago
I wonder, why don't large corporations join forces and lobby the government and congress for changes in patent rules and laws?
Of course they themselves may have benefited from the current rules quite a bit too, but they still can benefit more with some changes to the rules that remove the chance for these leeches from sucking blood from them and the whole economy. (For large enough players, growth in the economy as a whole will also affect their growths and profits.)
Large corporations generally have both positive and negative impacts on everyone's wellbeing, but these patent trolls, who don't produce anything of value, only consume resources, are clear negatives.
- Blankwood 16y agoPart of the reason they don't join forces more often is that the IP lawyers often are kept busy by looking at other large company portfolios. Their business is both offensive and defensive.
- Rariel 16y agoThat's actually not true, IP lawyers look at ALL patents when they're going after a patent troll or trying to invalidate, not just large companies. That would be pretty poor due diligence.
- chalst 16y agoLarge companies benefit from the current patent regime as well: it is hard to acquire a patent portfolio, and once you have done so, you have an advantage over companies that don't. Increased barriers to entry is good for large, established businesses.
- scott_s 16y agohttp://www.patentfairness.org/learn/about/ http://www.patentfairness.org/learn/about/
- kenjackson 16y agoI wonder, why don't large corporations join forces and lobby the government and congress for changes in patent rules and laws? Some do. In fact Microsoft is doing just this right now and many companies are supporting MS, including Google. Unfortunately, more companies came out AGAINST MS and in support of the current patent system. See: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2013785625_morethan100companiessupportofi4iinmicrosoftsupremecourtcase.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/20137856... It is interesting to note that the companies in support of MS are largely in the tech sector, while those against are largely in pharma/agriculture. Note, this case is about changing the standard of proof in patent cases to a "preponderance of evidence" rather than the higher standard of proof, "clear and convincing evidence". While it doesn't get rid of the patent system, it should make it easier to beat weak patents in court.
- nopinsight 16y agoA good way to do it might be to have different rules for different industries then.
- tesseract 16y ago> I wonder, why don't large corporations join forces and lobby the government and congress for changes in patent rules and laws? The story I usually hear is that there are two main groups of companies that are lobbying for changes to the patent law, but because of the different nature of their industries they have diverging goals for patent reform and have not been able to reach a compromise (thus the legislature is also unable to reach a compromise). On the one side are the consumer electronics and software companies, and on the other are the pharma and biotech companies.
- ww520 16y agoPerhaps the lawyers have a bigger lobbying group to counter that?