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Tech giants form group to buy patents
,----[ Quote ]
| To join the group, each company will pay about $250,000 put about $5 million
| into escrow for future patent purchases, the newspaper reported, citing
| people familiar with the matter
|
| [...]
|
| A sweeping patent law rewrite backed by seemingly every prominent hardware
| and software maker was part of that effort, but it stalled in the Senate last
| month. The so-called Patent Reform Act of 2007 would have curbed the ability
| of patent holders to obtain what the companies consider disproportionate
| damage awards, spurring the rise of so-called patent trolls who exist only to
| extort large payments out of deep-pocketed companies. Microsoft, Google,
| Cisco, Adobe Systems, Apple, Intel, Symantec, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, eBay,
| Oracle, and Red Hat were among the high-profile signatories that signed on in
| support of passage of the bill.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9980343-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Recent:
A Czar for the Digital Peasants
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| One sure sign of a lack of political vision is a rise in the number of pieces
| of acronymic legislation. After September 11, the US Congress passed the
| euphoniously named “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
| Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act” the
| initials of which spell out “USA – Patriot.” The Patriot Act is a pretty bad
| piece of legislation, but at least its drafters worked hard on the acronyms
| so that opponents could be labelled “anti-patriot” – a perfect level of
| analysis for Fox News. Admittedly, in this administration, having public
| officials torturing acronyms rather than detainees might be counted as a
| plus, but I still find the whole practice distasteful. I'd suggest that
| politicians vow to vote against any piece of legislation with its own
| normatively loaded acronym, no matter how otherwise appealing. It might make
| them focus a little more on the content.
|
| In any event, Congress has been at it again. The House just passed, and the
| Senate is considering, the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for
| Intellectual Property Act of 2008 – or “Pro-IP” Act. (If it passes, a version
| is sure to be urged on Europe as a matter of “harmonisation.”) Are you
| pro-intellectual property? Then surely you must be for this piece of
| legislation! The name says it all.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/14aacbc8-41e1-11dd-a5e8-0000779fd2ac.html
European Patent Office issued fewer patents in 2007
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| Nonetheless, the EPO staff's morale seems to have never been lower. A survey
| conducted among several thousand staff members found that only 4 per cent
| have faith in the management board. Only 6 per cent said they were satisfied
| with their direct superiors and the president. The auditors have also long
| been complaining that they are chronically overworked.
`----
http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/European-Patent-Office-issued-fewer-patents-in-2007--/110993
Campaign4Creativity is back in software patents lobbying
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| Simon Gentry is back in software patents lobbying. Now his role is to push
| for legalisation of software patents via the creation of central patent court
| in Europe.
`----
http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-69333/campaign4creativity-is-back-in-software-patents-lobbying
Term Extension “will damage Commission’s reputation”, top legal advisers tell
Barroso
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| Today, the leading European centres for intellectual property research have
| released a joint letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso,
| enclosing an impact assessment detailing the far reaching and negative
| effects of the proposal to extend the term of copyright in sound recordings.
| [...] “This Copyright Extension Directive, proposed by Commissioner Mccreevy,
| is likely to damage seriously the reputation of the Commission..."
`----
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/06/18/term-extension-will-damage-commissions-reputation-top-legal-advisers-tell-barroso/
[ffii] McCreevy wants to legalise Software Patents via a US-EU patent treaty
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| Brussels, 13 May 2008 -- European Commissioner McCreevy is pushing for a
| bilateral patent treaty with the United States. This Tuesday 13 May in
| Brussels, White House and European representatives will try to adopt a
| tight roadmap for the signature of a EU-US patent treaty by the end of
| the year. Parts of the proposed treaty will contain provision on
| software patents, and could legalise them on both sides of the Atlantic.
|
| "TEC talks are the current push for software patents. The US want to
| eliminate the higher standards of the European Patent Convention. The
| bilateral agenda is dictated by multinationals gathered in the
| Transatlantic Economic Business Dialogue (TABD). When you have a look
| who is in the Executive Board of the TABD, you find not a single
| European SME in there", says Benjamin Henrion, a Brussels based patent
| policy specialist.
|
| The Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) which comprises EU and US high
| level representatives put a substantive harmonisation of patent law on
| its agenda. Substantive patent law covers what is patentable or not. The
| attempt to impose the low US standards on Europe via the Substantive
| Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) process utterly failed at the World
| Intellectual Property Organisation. Also progress in the WIPO B+
| subgroup (without development nations) could not be reached.
`----
http://lwn.net/Articles/282000/
Nokia does not get it
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| You better start playing by the rules because else the other companies might
| do it faster than Nokia and you will lose the opportunity. Oh: And just as a
| remind: when you go open source, you *must* play by the rules by honoring the
| license of the software.
|
| Really, it’s sad to listen to things like this from someone controlling the
| company who owns Trolltech I am sure that the vice-president of companies
| like Red Hat wouldn’t say nonsense like the above. But it’s no surprise
| coming from someone in a company that seems to be absolutely in favor of
| software patents in Europe according to FFII.
`----
http://edulix.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/nokia-does-not-get-it/
Ideas Are Everywhere... So Why Do We Limit Them?
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| Gladwell uses this to talk up what Myhrvold is doing, suggesting that
| Intellectual Ventures is really about continuing that process, getting those
| ideas out there -- but he misses the much bigger point: if these ideas are
| the natural progression, almost guaranteed to be discovered by someone sooner
| or later, why do we give a monopoly on these ideas to a single discoverer?
| Myhrvold's whole business model is about monopolizing all of these ideas and
| charging others (who may have discovered them totally independently) to
| actually do something with them. Yet, if Gladwell's premise is correct (and
| there's plenty of evidence included in the article), then Myhrvold's efforts
| shouldn't be seen as a big deal. After all, if it wasn't Myhrvold and his
| friends doing it, others would very likely come up with the same thing sooner
| or later.
|
| This is especially highlighted in one anecdote in the article, of Myhrvold
| holding a dinner with a bunch of smart people... and an attorney. The group
| spent dinner talking about a bunch of different random ideas, with no real
| goal or purpose -- just "chewing the rag" as one participant put it. But the
| next day the attorney approached them with a typewritten description of 36
| different inventions that were potentially patentable out of the dinner. When
| a random "chewing the rag" conversation turns up 36 monopolies, something is
| wrong. Those aren't inventions that deserve a monopoly.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080507/0114581051.shtml
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