Well, look who finally showed up to the patent party! The Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday that it has opened an inquiry into "patent assertion entities," a.k.a. patent trolls. Start popping some popcorn, folks. This could get good.
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Sick of endless patent wars yet? According to the New York Times, so is the Federal Trade Commission. Referencing the usual persons briefed on the matter, the NYT reports that FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez is preparing to propose an inquiry that will put patent-assertion entities — companies that exist solely to buy and collect royalties on patents — under federal scrutiny. If approved, patent trolls that catch the FTC’s attention will need to detail how they operate and if their legal proceeds pay out to the original patent owner. The chairwoman is expected to explain the proposal in more detail at a patent law workshop later this week. According to the NYT, Ramirez doesn’t have any specific company in mind, but aims to investigate companies that might hamper innovation. With any luck, the inquiry will help curb spurious litigation and rampant patent trolling — something most of us can probably get behind.
Filed under: Misc
Source: New York Times
Newegg just took out one of the biggest patent trolls on the web. A troll so pervasive, it threatened to put out a mafioso lawsuit-insurance tax on basically every online retailer on the internet. Here’s how it happened, as told in a great writeup over at Ars Technica. More »
VirnetX is not a company that, strictly speaking, makes things. It is, instead, a company that collects patents the way joyless millionaires collect hermetically sealed comic books: for profit. And while it just scored an impressive $368 million in a successful Apple lawsuit, it’s not stopping there. It’s out for a full-on iPhone, iPad, and Mac ban. More »
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