CCIA Calls Upon Supreme Court to Rein in Patent Law

File Under: 2005, Copyright

Sep 27, 2005

Innovation is at risk unless federal courts change the way they handle patent litigation, the Computer & Communications Industry Association told the Supreme Court today.

In a filing presented late Monday, CCIA attorneys urged Justices to hear an appeal of an earlier ruling that enjoined the o­nline auction company eBay from using the fixed price purchase feature allegedly covered by patents owned by MercExchange LLC.

In its "friend-of-the-court" brief, CCIA argued that the Federal Circuit erred when it ruled that injunctive relief should be automatically granted in nearly all cases involving allegations of patent infringement. This decision, CCIA said, was o­ne more example of the larger problem represented by the Federal Circuit's unsupervised expansion of patent law.

The Federal Circuit has made patents too easy to get, easier to assert, more potent, more expansive, and widely available. Combined with the [U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's] own bureaucratic incentives to churn out patents, this has resulted in patents of decreasing quality, CCIA argued in the brief. Such practices, the association added, have undermined the legitimacy of our patent system and set it o­n an inflationary spiral that encourages further litigation.

"Cases like this demonstrate the dire need for patent reform," said CCIA President and CEO Ed Black. "The patent system should be a motivator of innovation."

Brief is available here