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2011 Award for most dishonest form of business goes to

January 9th, 2011

Dishonest patent litigation awardIn light of hearing the recent news that the website, WikiLeaks, has gathered confidential communications between the State Department and its many liaisons and plans on publishing it worldwide I have thought of a new yearly award we can hand out.

Well, between WikiLeaks and the unholy business of “patent trolls” buying off patents in order to use them solely as grounds for suing prospering business for patent infringement, I have gotten an idea! Let’s create an award identifying this years “Most dishonest form of business”.

Now I am sure we can sit here and think about many other candidates, but let’s get focused on pitching these two. First is WikiLeaks. Here is a business in which it’s sole purpose is to steal, bribe, cheat, and perhaps threaten life, to gather confidential, top secret type of information from national governments with the dastardly motivation to publish the info on the internet for all to see.

Doing this, of course, with the possibility of endangering military lives, or creating astronomical damage between nations, just for a profit. Then there are these “patent trolls” who represent the exact opposite of productive American business.

They, first, seek out struggling businesses, firms, or individuals who have no other choice but to sell their patent for whatever invention or product idea they have. Then, without any intention of ever manufacturing the patent idea, these “trolls” seek out successful businesses who have utilized some concept of their patented idea in order to sue them for patent infringements.

They are quite literally making money out of nothing. Looks like we have a couple of quality candidates for the award, right? Well then, drum roll please! And the winner is…

Eastern Federal court and the USPTO, Who is to blame for patent litigation run a muck?

January 5th, 2011

district court eastern district of texasFor those who hadn’t seen the show “Marriage Ref” one thing that happens to you when you watch is you find yourself quickly trying to identify who you side with. Taking you through a collage of video footage, you hear about a problem in the marriage and watch as celebrities and the host decides who is at fault.

I’m thinking we should set up a “Marriage Ref” between the eastern federal court district of Texas and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). And the problem?

Who’s more to blame for the out of control patent infringement litigation trend? On one side is East Texas’ very own establishing a standard of court decisions that has rewarded the majority patent holders of infringement.

On the other side is the USPTO and what could be seen as a low standard for patents to be given. Although giving the blame to one or the other isn’t as important as dealing with the problem itself. There is a laundry list of reasons that can be given as to why the obvious abuse of patent litigation needs to be stopped.

There is also a pretty good list of what can be done to hinder this. But these two groups stand at opposite ends of the spectrum with potential to put an end to this abuse. At the grass roots the USPTO can raise the standard of issuance of patents to be more clear in its distinction and perhaps concerning the manufacturing of the patent invention.

At the other end, court districts like the ones in East Texas can tweak its standard of what real damage has happened and the amount of compensation. Either way, something needs to be done to get this marriage cleaned up.