Our ongoing Reclaim Invention campaign urges universities not to sell patents to trolls. This month’s stupid patent provides a good example of why. US Patent No. 8,473,532 (the ’532 patent), “Method and apparatus for automatic organization for computer files,” began… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Patent Trolls’
One Step Closer to Reclaiming University Innovation From Trolls
Last year, EFF, along with our partner organizations, launched Reclaim Invention, a campaign to encourage universities across the country to commit to adopting patent policies that advance the public good. Reclaim Invention asks universities to focus on by bringing their… Read More ›
EFF To Patent Office: Supreme Court Limits On Abstract Patents Are a Good Thing
EFF has submitted comments to the Patent Office urging it not to support efforts to undermine the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Alice v. CLS Bank. The Patent Office had called for public submissions regarding whether “legislative changes are desirable”… Read More ›
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case that Could End Texas’ Grip on Patent Cases
The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods, a case that effectively asks the court to decide whether patent owners can sue in practically any corner of the country. EFF supported TC Heartland, the petitioner, at… Read More ›
Stupid Patent of the Month: Movies From the Cloud
The Onion once ran a piece titled “I invented YouTube back in 2010.” The joke, of course, is that YouTube launched in 2005. This month’s Stupid Patent of the Month is just as ridiculous. US Patent No. 8,856,221, titled ‘System… Read More ›
Stupid Patent of the Month: Changing the Channel
Is somebody really claiming to have invented a method for switching from watching one video to watching another? This question comes from a lawyer at the New York Times, as an aside in an interesting article about the paper’s response… Read More ›
Patent Trolls Undermine Open Access
This Open Access Week, the global open access community has a lot to celebrate. Hundreds of universities around the world have adopted open access policies asking faculty to publish their research in open access journals or archive them in open… Read More ›
Inside Intellectual Ventures' Portfolio: Nearly 500 University Patents
Harvard researcher Yarden Katz has just published some fascinating findings on which universities have sold patents to notorious patent-holding company Intellectual Ventures (IV). Of the nearly 30,000 active patents that IV lists publicly, 470 of them were originally assigned to… Read More ›
Patent Forum Shopping Must End
It’s Time for the Supreme Court to End the Venue Loophole As we’ve detailed on many occasions, forum shopping is rampant in patent litigation. Last year, almost 45% of all patent cases were heard in the Eastern District of Texas,… Read More ›
Stupid Design Patent of the Month: Rectangles on a Screen
On October 11, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the long-running Apple-Samsung litigation. The issue is whether Apple, by virtue of having its designed patents infringed by Samsung, is entitled to all of Samsung’s… Read More ›