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Trouble for patent trolls as new company seeks to spike their guns
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| On Wednesday, California-based RPX Corporation issued a press release to
| announce that it has secured funding from both Kleiner Perkins Caufield &
| Byers and Charles River Ventures, and that it will be setting out its USP in
| October. But we already have a pretty strong clue as to the general thrust of
| the new business. “Patent assertion and litigation costs US businesses
| billions of dollars every year. Our goal was to create an affordable service
| model that reduces the threat of assertion and litigation and provides
| efficient patent protection to subscribing companies,” says RPX co-founder
| and former Intellectual Ventures hotshot John Amster in the release.
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http://www.iam-magazine.com/Blog/Detail.aspx?g=045da20b-0bd2-414e-a436-e32862cc8d29
Patent startup gains high profile backing
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| RPX already purchased $30 million in patents
|
| [...]
|
| Intellectual Ventures (Bellevue, Wash.), launched by former Intel and
| Microsoft executives in 2000, is said to be among the first and largest of
| the group of companies formed in part to address the troll issue.
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http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=Y5PML15MGOPIQQSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=210602186
Recent:
September 24 is "World Day Against Software Patents"
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| Brussels, 2nd September 2008 — A global coalition of more than 80 software
| companies, associations and developers has declared the 24 of September to be
| the "World Day Against Software Patents". Five years ago, on 24 September
| 2003, the European Parliament adopted amendments to limit the scope of patent
| law and thereby protect small software companies from the harmful effects of
| broad and trivial software patents. A global petition asking to effectively
| stop software patents worldwide will be launched on 24 September 2008,
| together with specific additional requests for certain regions such as
| Europe, the United States, or India.
|
| On 24 September 2008, the World Day Against Software Patents will provide
| volunteers with the opportunity to express the growing concerns of users,
| businesses and developers. The granting of software patents by patent offices
| around the world affects their freedom to innovate. The organisers expect 24h
| of activities across the globe. Volunteers will gather in front of patent
| offices to inform the general public of the problems underlying software
| patenting.
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http://stopsoftwarepatents.org/draft:coalition-declares-24-september-as-the-world-day-against-software-patents
Latha Jishnu: The mouse that bit Microsoft
PATENTLY ABSURD
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| Here’s what Gates wrote in an office memorandum in 1991. “If people had
| understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were
| invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
| standstill today. . . I feel certain that some large company will patent some
| obvious thing related to interface, object orientation, algorithm,
| application extension or other crucial technique.”
|
| This was the year after Microsoft launched Windows 3.0, the first of its new
| operating systems that would become hugely popular across the world. Yet,
| three years down the line, Microsoft had changed from a kitten that was
| content with copyright protection to an aggressive patents tiger. In 1991,
| Microsoft had filed fewer than 50 patent applications whereas last year it
| was awarded 1,637 patents, almost a 12 per cent increase in the number of
| patents it received in 2006. According to IFI Patent Intelligence, the rise
| in Microsoft’s patents portfolio bucked the general trend in 2007 when the
| number of patents issued by the US Patents and Trademark Office dipped by 10
| per cent. Apparently several thousand of the company’s filings are still
| pending.
|
| All this may prompt the reader to conclude that there is indeed a direct
| correlation between IPR and growth — and wealth — as the company claims. Not
| true, says Mark H Webbink, a US Supreme Court lawyer who is a recognised
| voice on IT issues. Charting the company’s revenues, R&D spending and patent
| filings from 1985 onwards, he shows that the spike in patent filings occurred
| long after the Microsoft “had become well established and was being
| investigated for its monopolistic practices”. Webbink contends that patents
| did not spur the launch and rapid growth of the mass market software
| industry. On the other hand, patents have become a threat to software
| innovation, he warns.
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http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=330566
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