This month, the PTO issued for the very first time a five-item research agenda to be overseen by the new Office of Chief Economist. This deserves applause, both for innovating and for taking a major step in ensuring that the patent system promotes innovation and economic growth — not just patents. For the last five years, Congress…
In December, the long awaited version 2.0 of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) was released by the European Commission. Version 1.0 had defined “open standard” as royalty-free, a definition of enormous impact on standards policy because it focused on the user perspective rather than the perspective of standards development organizations. Some standards organizations claim that…
Apple vs. HTC; Oracle vs. Google; Microsoft vs. Motorola; Nokia vs. Apple…. Where will the patent meltdown end? This didn’t happen with PCs. Why now? These companies are not patent trolls. They are world class operating companies that should be competing in the marketplace with high-quality feature-rich products. Yes, they have accumulated huge patent portfolios,…
Yesterday we talked about how the 2007 legislation would have helped deal with growing patent damage awards. We’re focusing on the 2007 legislation now as it had stronger provisions to deal with some of the worst problems. The House bill also would have made apportionment of damages a major aspect of the new damage regime;…
There has been much discussion and escalating controversy in recent years about patent damage awards for infringement. With each iteration of proposed patent law reforms, Congress has become increasingly aware of the impact patent damages have in modern business. This is particularly true in light of the role NPE’s (patent trolls) play in the system…