4 ms·

Senate Republicans are getting ready to declare war on patent trolls

• dccoolgai 12y ago
  The velvet paw concealing the remorseless fang which will for the next two(?) years be disemboweling any vestige of corporate accountability still left. I like the stance against patent trolling... but no thank you.
  • cryoshon 12y ago
    It'll be more than two years unless there is a major outcry. The next election's all-too-predictable swinging back to the Democrats will not result in anything changing. After all, the Democrats wouldn't even be running in the elections if they hadn't been handed corporate cash. Sure, there will be some mumblings about progress in social issues to win them the votes, but they won't think that corporate domination is a real social issue.
• lsiebert 12y ago
  Yeah, mostly senate republicans want to limit trial lawyers, and strengthen large businesses. Trial lawyers serve as one of the ways that people in the US can impose limits on companies, through class action suits and other ways of seeking remedy. Republicans see this as a backdoor to increase risk associated with suing companies that misbehave. Of course dealing with patent trolls is important, but watch for this to bleed over to other areas of the legal and regulatory system when it comes up. And the truth is that strengthening class action lawsuits and corporate accountability to consumers, shareholders, etc would be well in line with traditional free market thinking, and weakening them serves to distort the market. You want businesses that behave badly to be penalized, so that good behavior is rewarded by market forces.