At EFF, we’ve always stood up for the freedom to tinker and innovate. Unfortunately, our patent system doesn’t promote those freedoms. In some areas, like software, it’s causing much more harm than good. And the system is rife with patent… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Patent Trolls’
Our Patent Review System is Ten Years Old. It’s Time to Make It Stronger.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants more than 300,000 patents each year. Some of those patent grants represent genuine new inventions, but many of them don’t. On average, patent examiners have about 18 hours to spend on each… Read More ›
The Public Should Know Who Profits From Patent Troll Lawsuits
It’s often impossible to find out who owns a United States patent. Even people who get sued over patents often can’t figure out who is demanding money from them. That’s even more true when the lawsuit comes from a patent… Read More ›
Washington State Has Sued a Patent Troll For Violating Consumer Protection Laws
Landmark Technology, a patent troll that has spent 20 years threatening and suing small businesses over bogus patents, and received EFF’s Stupid Patent of the Month award in 2019, has been sued by the State of Washington. Washington Attorney General… Read More ›
Fighting Abusive Patent Litigation During a Year of Health Crisis: 2020 Year In Review
The coronavirus dominated the news cycles, and our personal lives, in 2020. Scientists around the world raced forward to create a vaccine. Alongside that massive effort to create a critical new invention, we saw a renewed debate about patents and… Read More ›
It’s Time to Kick Patent Trolls Out of the International Trade Commission
The International Trade Commission, or ITC, is a federal agency in Washington D.C. that investigates unfair trade practices. Unfortunately, in recent years, it has also become a magnet for some of the worst abusers of the U.S. patent system. Now,… Read More ›
Courts Shouldn’t Stifle Patent Troll Victims’ Speech
In the U.S., we don’t expect or allow government officials – including judges–to be speech police. Courts are allowed to restrain speech only in the rarest circumstances, subject to strict limitations. So we were troubled to learn that a judge… Read More ›
The International Trade Commission Is Opening the Door to Abusive Patent Owners and Endangering U.S. Businesses
The International Trade Commission, or ITC, is a forum that’s meant to protect U.S. industries from unfair trade practices. But in recent years, the prime beneficiaries of the sprawling ITC haven’t been American manufacturers, but patent owners, patent lawyers, and—you guessed… Read More ›
The “Inventor Rights Act” is an Attack on True Invention
Certain patent owners just can’t get enough of the monopoly power patents bestow. That’s why they keep trying to make it easier to get and sue over patents, despite Supreme Court rulings that point in the opposite direction. Their latest… Read More ›
Court Orders Hearing in Uniloc’s Patent Case Against Apple to be Conducted by Phone, Citing COVID-19 Risks
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, citing public health efforts to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 transmission, ordered that an April hearing in the Uniloc v. Apple patent case be conducted by phone rather than in person… Read More ›