Patent wars - again

[joiwind]

Believe it or not : Obama takes action to curb frivolous patent lawsuits

[Tinman57]

  Careful what you wish for, knowing the government they could turn it around and make it so the average Joe can have his patent ripped off legally by the big corporations.  Sears tried that many times in the past and always got their buttes in a sling over it.  If the government can stay on the right track and just do away with the Trolls we will all be better off for it.

[Stoic Joker]

Sears tried that many times in the past and always got their buttes in a sling over it.

Like the inventor with the one size fits all speed wrench they screwed just in time for last Christmas?

[Tinman57]

Sears tried that many times in the past and always got their buttes in a sling over it.

Like the inventor with the one size fits all speed wrench they screwed just in time for last Christmas?

  Yep, that one would be one of them.  Before that it was automatic adjusting pliars, and before that it was some kind of new fangled socket.  There's been so many of them that I can't remember them all.  I've slept since then. 

[40hz]

I wonder how much of Obama's motivation comes from Microsoft and Apple starting to run into problems in places like the EU and China over the very patent quagmire they themselves helped create?

Now that major American business interests are starting to get hurt I guess there will finally be some action taken. Unfortunately, one of the qualifying points that makes one not a troll is if there is already an ongoing business and manufactured product to go with  the patent being asserted. That condition could leave all the small startups and kickstarters twisting in the wind if they try to enforce their patents against one of the big companies.

I think this is ultimately going to mostly benefit the large established businesses which are patent holders and hang all the small innovators and new businesses out to dry. I'd like  to hope this isn't really all a plan to shut out new claimants and hand the field over to big business. But I've been around long enough not to have much hope for that.

I'm guessing whatever gets done will likely benefit everybody at first. But afterwards, certain clauses and interpretations will inevitably pull the rug out from under all but the biggest corporations when it comes to patent protection.

[Stoic Joker]

I'm guessing whatever gets done will likely benefit everybody at first. But afterwards, certain clauses and interpretations will inevitably pull the rug out from under all but the biggest corporations when it comes to patent protection.

Kind of like stirring up a grassroots movement of lemming. Everybody cheers and runs for the goal not realizing the instigators have stepped back into the shadows as the crowd storms past (on their way to the cliff's edge).