Tell Your Senator to vote NO on Patent “Reform” (S. 1145)!!
Eagle Forum has been following the developments regarding the Patent Reform Act (S. 1145), sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). This dangerous legislation could come up in the Senate for a vote in the next week when Congress returns from its recess. The House version (H.R. 1908) already passed by a vote of 220-175 (Roll Call 863) on September 7, 2007.
Despite recent changes made to the bill, Eagle Forum still opposes it because it is a terrible cheat on small inventors, and also would be a gigantic giveaway of American technology, which is the key to our standard of living.
First, this Patent Act would make it cheaper for infringers to steal patented inventions by limiting damages to the patent’s “specific contribution over the prior art” — an unworkable test that would result in artificially low damages awards and increased litigation costs. Because damages are often the only remedy available to a small inventor, this ill-advised provision will decrease the value of patent property rights and undermine the ability of small firms to fend off large infringers.
Second, this Patent Act would make it mandatory for the U.S. patent office to post on the internet the details of all inventions only 18 months after date of application. The big winner of this nasty provision would be Asian pirates who sit at their computers and steal American inventions in the time period between posting on the internet at 18 months and 32 months, which is how long it takes for a patent to be granted.
Third, this Patent Act would abandon the American system of granting a patent to the first person to invent something new, and instead adopt the foreign system of granting a patent to the first person to file an application. There is no good reason to prefer any foreign procedure over the successful American system. And there is a mighty good reason not to: first-to-file would bring an avalanche of applications ground out by the large staffs of multinationals, leaving the small inventors buried in paper. It would also diminish patent quality by encouraging large companies to race to the patent office with poorly drafted applications.
Fourth, the Patent Act would create something called post-grant review, a process that would make it far easier for patent infringers to invalidate a patent anytime after it is issued, thereby making the inventor’s property rights vulnerable and reducing his ability to attract venture capital. The big winners again would be the multinationals with lots of lawyers.
Add it all up, and it is clear that the new Patent “Reform” bill is a big attack on the constitutional property rights of individual inventors and small enterprises. About a third of all U.S.-origin patent applications are filed by individual inventors, small companies, universities, and non-profit groups.
If Congress wants to do something constructive for our patent system, Congress should reinstate the rule that the Patent Office may not publish a patent application until a patent is granted, and if it is denied the application must be returned to the inventor, secrets intact.
Take Action
The Senate should vote NO on S. 1145, the Patent Reform bill. Please call your Senators and visit with them in the district office and urge them to vote NO!
Capitol Switchboard: (202)-224-3121
Further Reading: PATENTS
| Eagle Forum • PO Box 618 • Alton, IL 62002 • phone: 618-462-5415 • fax: 618-462-8909 • eagle@eagleforum.org
Used with permission. The Liberty Letters are a project of the Latter-day Center for Moral Liberalism |
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Palinurus said,
February 26, 2008 at 6:13 am
stv said,
According to some a patent troll is a firm who licenses patents they do not themselves commercialize. Yet many of the large firms who are most critical of the practice do it themselves. Out licensing is now an important profit center of most every firm. Often, as a result they end up licensing out patents covering technologies they themselves do not use as they are not consistent with their corporate plan. Rather hypocritical isnt it?
The sad truth is that entities some call ?trolls? are often small companies or independent inventors who cant get the money to commercialize their inventions and end up on the curb watching others benefit from their creations. It?s enough to drive one mad. It?s certainly enough to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
February 26, 2008 at 8:24 am
Artfldgr said,
to call someone a patent troll for inventing is a stupid thing..
however, the trolls are the companies that buy these small patents from inventors in which the other companies dont want to deal. they then persue them for the money. now if the company originally delt wiht the patent holder, and worked a licence, then it would be good. but they were shutting them out and playing the waiting game.
the actions of companies are what created the trolls, as the law changes, and taking the money from the patent office helped the rest.
by crying patent troll your accepting the premise that the only ones that have a right to invent are people/companies who have a lot of money and power and can do something with that invention before they have invented it.
most people do not actually create. the world around you in its glory is from a VERY few (percentage wise) who create and create to make the world better (by making someone happy in that world. bombs make some people happy)
the rest are people that live of that idea and share it and improve it and make whole livings from it.
care to list out the great inventions by independents? Google…Microsoft (early days)… Hewlette packard… Sony… General motors… Ford… General dynamics… lockheed… xerox… pkzip.
care to know what happened to the man that created FM radio.. the big guys screwed with him and refused to license. went so far as to lobby the state to change the operating frequency range… he put on his hat one day, and walked out a window.
care to know what happend to the man that did pkzip. he killed himself too.
there is a long list of people that were crushed by the system before the laws made sure that they couldnt even try..
here is a common thing that makes trolls. you work for a bakery, you invent a new electronic sensor for detecting cancer… the bakery now owns your patent and property. why? because these companies make you sign an agreement as a term of hire… JUST IN CASE anyone they may hire might produce gold from nothing.
i am an inventor… right now i have two in the pipes. one can accelerate quadratic operations to compute genetic matches in clock time. it works, we tested it, we are now trying to patent and such. the circuit can do the work in one month that 1000 desktops would take 30 years to do.
but i am a small nothing. therefore… this person would want me to not bring that forward.
of course there is a problem mathematically in genetics… and this solves a major problem in it attacking np complete problems in linear time. a holy grail if i really have it.
the other is a new way to sense genetic sequences creating reusable chips that can analyse things.
i have little money.. can barely patent it… the patent would give me the rights to the idea so that i could then approach firms to sell it.
under this new stuff… i should quit… i design computer systems and medical stuff… orignally a bronx science guy a year early.
while everyone was out playing or in grade school, i was learning physics, chemistry at the college level.
but i dont deserve to have any returns for that investment of my life and focus. that i have literally worked since i was 7 towardd being smart enough and then keeping up with it till i am now over 40…
all this costed a lot of money and time… time where i sacrificed going out and playing… money where i didnt entertain myself, and bought supplies, or books, or software…
take that away… and people like me, dean kamen, and many others… who are the ones that actually invent the things that companies then buy out to have… we will go the way of the dodo.
care to let me know how much intellectual property comes from UAE? how about russia?
the united states has the larges set of indepentend inventors.
ah… but if your a marxist, and a communist… then my comparitive advantage i earned makes me an enemy. you cant make america equyal with these other countries unless you cripple her like them.
and now they are.
procrustes lives…
did you think feminists were the only ones with the idea that the fruits of the induvidual must go to the collective wihtout any thanks to that individual, their sacrifice and such.
this is part of the program to kill the individuals.
take a look at the lemelson program at mit. you read the studies, and it talks about individuals. you look at the programs and you realize that marixst socialists took over the charity and are wasting the money. they give money to proven inventors (safe)… and they give money to group inventors.. or young grade school student teams.. (also safe)… oh and htey give money to their students playing favorites (safe). the one thing they dont do is use that money to actually do what the money was donated to them for. to help the independent inventor.
they say thats what hteir purpose is… but as of yet i have not seen anythig that even attempts to realize that purpose.
not even money to lobby in favor of such.
so i guess i shoud tear up my notebooks… i have lots of good things.. water purification designs… new designs for sensors… new electronic circuits…
i guess we should leave it to the people who are hired by the companies to do engineering… how many in america still do that?
america is in decline because we have been subverted.
we have turned our heroes into trolls.
[and the trolls walk around pretending to be heroes]
February 26, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Palinurus said,
February 26, 2008 at 9:22 pm