tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4839057482041697427.post8841829757106905793..comments2017-09-09T16:19:25.535-04:00Comments on Patent Demand: What about Trolls?Tim Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06073366480423507725noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4839057482041697427.post-39013926478693308052007-11-26T12:23:00.000-05:002007-11-26T12:23:00.000-05:00Just posted a long comment here:http://emgill.blog...Just posted a long comment here:<BR/><BR/>http://emgill.blogspot.com/<BR/><BR/>Thanks,<BR/>Erin-MichaelErin-Michael Gillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04073642945006189878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4839057482041697427.post-87582020356860416162007-11-26T08:19:00.000-05:002007-11-26T08:19:00.000-05:00djf. I don't believe that KSR really changed anyt...djf. I don't believe that KSR really changed anything other than increased the PTO's ability to stick to bad 103 rejections (see previous post on two types of patent quality). Patent quality is bad because of the volume of patent applications. When the volume is cut down, patent quality will go up as will the value of all patents. Remember this change is only for large entities. Small entities will be handled by the examiners having more time to focus on their invention (or lack thereof).Tim Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06073366480423507725noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4839057482041697427.post-90666296359121116752007-11-26T07:28:00.000-05:002007-11-26T07:28:00.000-05:00In hi-tech - i.e. land of trolls - there are lots ...In hi-tech - i.e. land of trolls - there are lots of small inventors who get patents on incremental inventions, and then their IP gets snapped up by a troll (or the patentee, who manufactures nothing himself, hires a contingency fee lawer and becomes a troll himself). That being the case, it's not clear to me how raising the filing fee would reduce the number of trolls - the filing fee is paid at the time of filing, so if I'm a lone inventor (of actual or dubious inventions), there's no disincentive for me to keep filing my applications. Lemelson, the uber-troll, only assigned his patents to his foundation *after* they were granted, right? He wouldn't have been affected by your proposal.<BR/><BR/>What your proposal might dissuade is the filing by big companies of applications on frivolous inventions. That wouldn't be a bad thing. But I'll bet there are medium-sized companies - including pharma companies - that qualify as "large entity" under the # of employees standard and will be dissuaded from filing applications on non-frivolous inventions that they don't yet know are valuable. (Pharma companies only get into clinical trials after the applications have been filed. So by trying to pick on the large, established filers of lousy patents, many of whom are not trolls b/c they actually make ans sell something, you'd be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.<BR/><BR/>Most importantly, in the wake of KSR, I think we're going to be seeing far fewer crap patents for trolls to work with. Granted, there will be a lag of 15-20 years until the crap patents that have issued since State Street are all dead, but if KSR means anything it signifies a shift of the pendulum in the opposite direction (perhaps too far, to the point where some things that should be patented won't be, but that's for a different thread). So when push comes to shove, some trolls will get rich during this period and for Sun, Microsoft et al., paying trolls (or defense attornies) will continue to be part of doing business. Viewed that way, your proposal is more likely to lead less innovation, due an inability to patent (or inability to properly value a contemplated patent), than it is going to address a problem that needs fixing, since the supremes already saw to that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com