Mon, 05 Apr 2004

Dodgy Patents Rile Tech Industry

This is a good overview of the whole patent mess. I'm not sure how I'd go about fixing it, but I think that reforming the way patents are challanged would be a good start.

Under the current system, when a patent holder confronts a company about a possible patent violation, the defendant usually has three options: It can try to prove that it's not violating the patent; it can negotiate with the patent holder to license the technology for a fee; or it can try to prove that the patent was wrongly awarded. To a defendant that thinks it has done nothing wrong, none of the options seems just.

A patent for a type of browser cookie? This and other dubious patents have led the software industry to declare that the U.S. patent system is broken and needs to be repaired. But no quick fix is in sight. By Amit Asaravala.

(link) [Wired News]

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