Patent reform advocates are launching a ‘super-coalition’ to whack patent trolls

Re:Patent reform advocates are launching a ‘super-coalition’... by Animats on Friday January 16, 2015 @01:31AM (#8897511)

The line between patentable and not patentable inventions is very fuzzy, and always seems to drift toward allowing a little more each year.

That hasn't been true for several years, and the PTO has been very tough on software patents since the Supreme Court decided Alice v. CLS. The PTO is currently rejecting applications that fail the "machine or transformation of matter" test, although sometimes they can be argued out of a rejection. The Alice decision is rather unclear, which annoys everybody.

The "patent troll" problem isn't that big. The EFF's data indicate that almost all the bulk infringement claims come from three lawyers in the Eastern District of Texas.

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Re:Patent reform advocates are launching a ‘super-coalition’... by PythonicAlpha on Friday January 16, 2015 @01:08PM (#8900460)

Of course, every development also has its counter-development -- specially when a big court gives new guidelines. Everybody (the examiners, people who think about the system and judges) can see, that the system is overstretched. So a reaction was very much necessary.

But there are strong forces, that are pulling the system into the wrong direction. Big corporations, patent lawyers and investors want the overstretched system, because it is good for their profit.

It is good for dinosaur corporations that want to defend their "claim" against smaller and more agile competitors.

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