Hasta La Gadget!

Here’s a question. Forced to decide, would you rather have a patent troll breathing down your neck, or cuddle up with an entity just as ghoulish that’s living under a bridge? The FTC wants your thoughts on the matter, even if its description isn’t quite so… colorful. The agency is putting out a call for public commentary on its proposed investigation of patent assertion entities, which have come under federal scrutiny as of late. Key to the proposal, the FTC would request information from 25 patent trolls to learn non-public information such as their corporate structure, patent holdings, means of acquiring patents, the cost of enforcing them and the earnings that the trolls generate. Accordingly, the agency hopes to “develop a better understanding of how they impact innovation and competition.”

For comparison sake, the FTC also proposes an information request from approximately 15 companies in the wireless communication sector, which would include manufacturers and other licensing entities. You’re more than welcome to answer the bridge question in the comments, but if you want to contact the FTC directly, you’ll find everything you need after the break.

[Image credit: Tristan Schmurr / Flickr]

Filed under: Misc

Comments

Source: FTC

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

Comments

Source: New York Times

Tired of all the patent-related stories? Especially the ones that seem like they are more about financial gain than fairness? We thought so. We’d imagine it’s even more of a frustration if you’re one of the companies regularly involved. No surprise then that some firms — such as Google, BlackBerry, EarthLink and Red Hat — have decided to do something about it, taking the fight directly to the FTC and DoJ. In a recent blog post, Google explains that — along with its collaborators — it has submitted comments to the aforementioned agencies, detailing the impact that “patent trolls” have on the economy.

While the financial cost to the US taxpayer is said to be nearly $30 billion, the four companies also point out how such behavior hurts consumers even further, suggesting that when start-ups and small businesses are strong-armed, innovation and competition suffer. Some specific practices such as “patent priveteering” — when a company sells patents to trolls who don’t manufacture anything and therefore can’t be countersued — also come under direct criticism. The cynical might assume this all comes back to the bottom line, but with the collaborative extending an invitation to other companies to help develop revised, cooperative licensing agreements, they are the very least making it difficult for them to engage in similar behavior in the future. At least until the FTC and DoJ respond.

Filed under: Misc, Google, Blackberry

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Google Public Policy (blog)

One of the original “non-manufacturing IP firms,” NTP, has just signed an agreement with 13 of the companies it sued for infringing its email patents. The tech industry whales paying for licenses include Google, Microsoft and Yahoo on the software side; wireless operators Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile; and handset companies Apple, HTC, Motorola, Palm, LG and Samsung. If all the litigation is blurring together in your head, we remind you that NTP is one of the founding patent under-bridge dwellers who made lawyers’ eyes everywhere light up with a $612 million payout from RIM back in 2006. That seemingly gave them the courage — and bankroll, presumably — to attack the above companies in 2010 for infringement of its eight wireless email patents, including push technology. The terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed, but considering the dollars paid out by RIM, “we can imagine quite a bit,” to quote Han Solo.

[Image credit: Shutterstock]

Filed under: Wireless, Software

NTP reaches agreement with 13 patent defendants including Apple, Microsoft and Google originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CNET  | Email this | Comments