Out Patenting the Patent Trolls
July 1st, 2008 by Justin Ryan
The latest effort to outwit the spate of sham companies extorting patent royalties is a group effort to cross the bridge before the trolls can get there.
The move, headed up by Google and bringing together big names including Verizon, Cisco, and HP, involves the creation of a holding company, christened the Churchill-esque Allied Security Trust, which will snatch up key patents and hold them in common to keep them out of the hands — and legal actions — of royalty-hungry patent trolls. Each company is putting up $250,000 to join, and escrowing a whopping $5 million to provide a slush fund for patent purchases. Good news for the good guys, but something tells us this won't be the end of the greed brigade.
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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
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I don't care for the legalese...
On July 1st, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause):
Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, known as the Copyright Clause, the Copyright and Patent Clause (or Patent and Copyright Clause), the Intellectual Property Clause and the Progressive Clause, empowers the United States Congress:
“ To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
The clause starts with its intention: to promote the progress, etc., etc.
Current patent/copyright/trademark laws are getting in the way of progress. So, they seem to be unconstitutional, to begin with.
Reform the laws (fat chance!), respect the Constitution, and things should work as intended.
Do I believe this will happen? Not in my lifetime...