[PCWorld]

Post your comments for How Tech Patent Lawsuits Hurt Real People here

[veeblefetzer]

Software patents are now doing the opposite of what the original patent concept was intended for. Intended to protect small inventors from having their ideas ripped off by others, the law is now used by large corporations to stifle innovation by other companies. The whole patent system is in need of a major overhaul.

[Seronac]

Sounds like counter-suit time, if it wasn't so expensive.

Part of the problem with the patent system is that most legislators are attorneys, and, being the morally bankrupt scum that they are, they do what most benefits them and their cohorts. Washington needs some serious cleaning.

[bankerdanny]

I'm not sure what the point of this article is. Patents should not be enforced when the violator puts out a really useful product?

That a company shouldn't be able to enforce the patent it received for the product or process it developed and patented (possibly at great cost) because the product produced by the infringer provides a vital service to a very cute little girl?

The Neider's have my sympathy, really they do. But Speak For Yourself should not be able to hide behind their daughter as an excuse for infringing on Semantic's patent.

[harz]

Is there no way that Speak For Yourself can license the patented attributes used in the software? Why is it that it is so hard for people and especially companies to just get along anymore? "Let's sue everybody into oblivion and then do little to nothing with he patents ourselves!" sounds rather Dr.Evil to me. Commence maniacal laugh with upturned pinky finger.

[coastie65]

Nice article. Shows how scewed up things really are. I guess patents are good to a certain point, but they can be abused ( Pharmaceuticals anyone? ).

[Sarah Jacobsson Purewal]

bankerdanny, on 28 March 2012 - 08:24 AM, said:

I'm not sure what the point of this article is. Patents should not be enforced when the violator puts out a really useful product?

That a company shouldn't be able to enforce the patent it received for the product or process it developed and patented (possibly at great cost) because the product produced by the infringer provides a vital service to a very cute little girl?

The Neider's have my sympathy, really they do. But Speak For Yourself should not be able to hide behind their daughter as an excuse for infringing on Semantic's patent.

The point is that patent legislation no longer protects what it was initially created to protect: innovation. Patent laws were created so that small-time inventors would be able to disclose their inventions to the public without having them ripped off by larger businesses with more money/resources to create a better (if not more innovative) product. These days we see mostly two kinds of patent lawsuits: large companies who patent what are arguably not "non-obvious" inventions in order to create a monopolistic hold on any particular market, and holdings companies who did not invent anything but instead purchased a patent for the express purpose of litigation.

[BlueCollarCritic]

Typical corporate Typical Corporate BS. The protections and law of this country are not there to protect the individual by the corporations and their partners in corrupt government. They can get away with this abuse of power only so long as we the people continue to buy into the BS lies about copyright protection and corporate bailouts.

Stop these crooks from destroying another single human by promoting a return to constitutionally accurate government that refuses to give favor to the corporations who have gotten accustom to being able to buy government protection and favors.

[LiveBrianD]

veeblefetzer, on 28 March 2012 - 06:34 AM, said:

Software patents are now doing the opposite of what the original patent concept was intended for. Intended to protect small inventors from having their ideas ripped off by others, the law is now used by large corporations to stifle innovation by other companies. The whole patent system is in need of a major overhaul.

And while they're at it, the copyright system could use a reform too. (Think: RIAA, MPAA, etc...)

[sithgecko]

If these companies start using a service like PEDDaL to protect their IP these patent trolls would not have chance in court.

[patsw]

This is an existential problem for the big companies - any license they grant for a substantial replacement for their $9000 device, kills their product line. It's not in the self-interest of the large companies to offer licenses.