Race to Invalidation

Many of you know that I have very strong opinions about the state of intellectual property protection in the U.S. For instance, the realm of copyright jurisprudence and enforcement is rife with inconsistency and absurdity. You only need read Lessig and Gillmor (among others) for a week or two to figure that out. Nevertheless, what has really depressed me over the last few years is the dysfunction of our patent system.

I unforunately cannot write in specifics because I was counsel to a handful of patent actions that are still pending before federal courts today. Nevertheless, I can say that the more I learned about the patent system, the more I realized that its application today was functioning to stifle innovation and technological progress. This is why I was so excited to see that EFF was putting effort into exposing and hopefully invalidating some of the most egregious patents and the teams who seek to exploit them.

The Patent Busting project has assembled a list of what it deems to be the Ten Most Wanted patents for invalidation. On the list there may be some particularly underhanded folks with whom I may have butted heads over the past few years. But, of course, I wouldn't want to cast any targeted aspersions.

Take a second to read the list and consider the effect that these well-heeled extortionists can have on bootstrapped start-ups. Convinced? Now take a moment to give EFF a couple of bucks. Feels good, eh?

Comments

[abercrombie uk]

Well said, such a person should be a good sentence, or the future will be more rampant.

[Abercrombie and fitch london]

houghts on aerodynamic stabilization? What would a white sail with blue wedge lined by silver look like? Real pretty I recon!!
Is this design known as the flying wedge?

[abercrombie fitch]

Think they would read the BILL if they had to live by it?

[abercrombie]

talk about Oregon. It had a rhythm that kept me focused and didn't allow me to go numb at any point.1