January 5th, 2011
For 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.
Tags: Collage Video, Court Decisions, East Texas, eastern district court of texas, eatern federal court, Grass Roots, Issuance, Laundry List, Muck, Patent And Trademark Office, Patent And Trademark Office Uspto, Patent Holders, Patent Infringement Litigation, Patent Invention, Patent Litigation, Patent Trademark, States Patent And Trademark Office, States Patent And Trademark Office Uspto, the united states district court eastern district of texas, United States Patent, United States Patent And Trademark, United States Patent And Trademark Office, uspto, Video Footage
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November 12th, 2010
Hand Over the Cash
Recently in the United States, there has been a huge surge in intellectual property rights cases as patent trolling becomes more and more popular. Some areas such as East Texas are well known for being a haven for these cases due to the fact that those judges and juries have a long history of awarding large monetary compensations to patent trolls when copyright infringement cases are brought against large companies. Still, no matter what part of the country you are in, there are many more copyright infringement cases brought forth by patent trolls looking to make a quick lump sum than those that are filed by inventors looking to protect their idea or product.
The way that our legal system is set up allows for complete abuse by patent trolls, and it has proven quite lucrative. For one, United States patent law is arranged so that the patent holder doesn’t even have to produce the product in question to be able to sue for copyright infringement. Because of this, patent trolls can buy patents for cheap and simply use them to barter with big companies with no intention at all of ever using the patents to produce a product or other tangible object.
While there are many happy patent trolls out there, there are also plenty of people against the abuse of the legal system. There has been plenty of talk of the need for patent reform, but nothing has changed so far. For now, the playing field is wide open to patent trolls.
Tags: Advantage, Compensations, Copyright Infringement Cases, East Texas, Intellectual Property Rights, Intention, Inventors, Juries, Lawyers in Patent Cases, Lump Sum, Patent Holder, Patent Infringement, Patent Law, Patent Reform, Patents, People, Tangible Object, Texas Attorneys, Trolls, Tyler Texas, Tyler Texas Patent Law, United States Patent, Winning a patent case
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