3 ms·

Wouldn't it be simpler to require that any company suing over patents must also be an active practitioner in the field(s) that the patents involve? That would

Wouldn't it be simpler to require that any company suing over patents must also be an active practitioner in the field(s) that the patents involve? That would kill the asset-free trolls instantly because without an engineering staff and a product they can't very well be building anything that uses their "property", can they?

foxylad 14y ago
I was thinking the same thing, but then realised how easy would it be to subvert any definition of "active practitioner". The troll only needs to contract a guy (offshore?) who swears he's developing something that will come to market real soon now.
excuse-me 14y ago
If you were an active practioner in the field you wouldn't need a patent, you would have trade secrets. Suppose I'm a consultancy and i invent an improvement to an MRI machine. I can sell the idea an MRI maker - or without patent protection I would have to set up in business making million $ MRI machines and compete with Toshiba/Philips/GE etc in order to benefit from my small improvement.
dinkumthinkum 14y ago
I don't think we have to bring down the whole patent system just to stop software patents. Let's just stop issuing software patents and just deal with existing software patents however we can? One possibility.
- beagle3 14y ago
  If it is property, tax it like property, at 1% of value per year. All of a sudden, every trivial patent will be assigned 0 value by its owner, and then convincing a court the violation is worth $100M is hard. Also puts old and new patents on equal footing.
  - eru 14y ago
    > If it is property, tax it like property, at 1% of value per year. Where is property taxed like that?
    - beagle3 14y ago
      Real estate, essentially everywhere in the western world. The range I have observed in multiple countries is 0.5%-1.5%, and it isn't always called "property tax" (e.g., in the UK it breaks between "council tax", and various other taxes, none of which is specifically named "property tax"; in the neighborhoods of CA I'm familiar with, it's 1.2% in the last few years) Car licenses in many places are also essentially a property tax of 1% of the car value, or so.
vidarh 14y ago
A typical patent lawsuit is so expensive that hiring a small engineering staff and tell them to go off and design something cheap that makes use of the patent would be peanuts in comparison.

foxylad 14y ago

I was thinking the same thing, but then realised how easy would it be to subvert any definition of "active practitioner". The troll only needs to contract a guy (offshore?) who swears he's developing something that will come to market real soon now.

excuse-me 14y ago

If you were an active practioner in the field you wouldn't need a patent, you would have trade secrets. Suppose I'm a consultancy and i invent an improvement to an MRI machine. I can sell the idea an MRI maker - or without patent protection I would have to set up in business making million $ MRI machines and compete with Toshiba/Philips/GE etc in order to benefit from my small improvement.

dinkumthinkum 14y ago

I don't think we have to bring down the whole patent system just to stop software patents. Let's just stop issuing software patents and just deal with existing software patents however we can? One possibility.

beagle3 14y ago
If it is property, tax it like property, at 1% of value per year. All of a sudden, every trivial patent will be assigned 0 value by its owner, and then convincing a court the violation is worth $100M is hard. Also puts old and new patents on equal footing.
- eru 14y ago
  > If it is property, tax it like property, at 1% of value per year. Where is property taxed like that?
  - beagle3 14y ago
    Real estate, essentially everywhere in the western world. The range I have observed in multiple countries is 0.5%-1.5%, and it isn't always called "property tax" (e.g., in the UK it breaks between "council tax", and various other taxes, none of which is specifically named "property tax"; in the neighborhoods of CA I'm familiar with, it's 1.2% in the last few years) Car licenses in many places are also essentially a property tax of 1% of the car value, or so.

vidarh 14y ago

A typical patent lawsuit is so expensive that hiring a small engineering staff and tell them to go off and design something cheap that makes use of the patent would be peanuts in comparison.