The high-technology sphere has been plagued with a series of patent-related lawsuits in recent years, which has really called into question the way in which patents are issued and used as tools of litigation. The past decade has seen among the most intellectual property-related court cases of any era and this is due primarily to the fact that there has been so much rapid innovation in technology.
However, another cause of the huge amounts of patent-related court cases seen by courts has been the transformation of the legal sphere, encouraging companies away from innovation and towards litigation. One important part of this has been the increased prevalence of "patent trolls", non-practicing entities which buy up patents merely for the sake of suing other companies and making money. This practice, however, has flowed over into the tech sector, as now many tech giants such as Apple and Google are buying up patents and companies that hold patents, merely for the sake of attacking others and protecting themselves from these cases. "In recent years, the big tech giants have stockpiled patents from other companies. In 2011, Google and Apple spent more on buying up patents than they did on research and development, according to Nazer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "When you're looking at what are supposedly our most innovative tech companies and they're spending more buying patents than actually innovating, you've seen patents sort of usurp the R&D process rather than promote it," he says."
The Supreme Court has the potential to change this all in upcoming months, as they are evaluating a court case on the nature of patent trolls, Alice Corp v. CLS Bank. This case will have an impact on patent trolls can sue companies in the future and will influence the way that technology related patents are issued (two issues that have been discussed in my previous blog posts). If these issues are effectively tackled by the Supreme Court, there could be major positive strides taken towards reforming the intellectual property process. On the other hand, however, if the supreme court fails to make the right decision, the flaws in this process could become even more entrenched.
Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/05/01/308735270/how-the-supreme-court-could-reshape-the-tech-patent-landscape
However, another cause of the huge amounts of patent-related court cases seen by courts has been the transformation of the legal sphere, encouraging companies away from innovation and towards litigation. One important part of this has been the increased prevalence of "patent trolls", non-practicing entities which buy up patents merely for the sake of suing other companies and making money. This practice, however, has flowed over into the tech sector, as now many tech giants such as Apple and Google are buying up patents and companies that hold patents, merely for the sake of attacking others and protecting themselves from these cases. "In recent years, the big tech giants have stockpiled patents from other companies. In 2011, Google and Apple spent more on buying up patents than they did on research and development, according to Nazer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "When you're looking at what are supposedly our most innovative tech companies and they're spending more buying patents than actually innovating, you've seen patents sort of usurp the R&D process rather than promote it," he says."
The Supreme Court has the potential to change this all in upcoming months, as they are evaluating a court case on the nature of patent trolls, Alice Corp v. CLS Bank. This case will have an impact on patent trolls can sue companies in the future and will influence the way that technology related patents are issued (two issues that have been discussed in my previous blog posts). If these issues are effectively tackled by the Supreme Court, there could be major positive strides taken towards reforming the intellectual property process. On the other hand, however, if the supreme court fails to make the right decision, the flaws in this process could become even more entrenched.
Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/05/01/308735270/how-the-supreme-court-could-reshape-the-tech-patent-landscape
No comments:
Post a Comment