Before COVID-19, people living in rural and isolated areas urgently needed to access health care services remotely; now we all do. Thanks to decades of innovation in computing and telecommunications, more essential health care services are available electronically than ever… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Patents’
EFF to Patent Office: No New Design Patents
Design is incredibly important to how people use and choose products, but design patents are not. They provide exclusive rights only to ornamental product features, which by definition are not useful or artistic; for those that are, utility patent and… Read More ›
Victory! EFF Scores Another Win for the Public’s Right of Access against Patent Owner Fighting for Secrecy
Patents generate profits for private companies, but their power comes from the government, and in this country, the government’s power comes from the people. That means the rights patents confer, regardless of who exercises them, are fundamentally public in nature…. Read More ›
Blyncsy’s Patent On Contact Tracing Isn’t A Medical Breakthrough, It’s A Patent Breakdown
Stupid Patent of the Month Contact tracing is critical for limiting the spread of a contagion like COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean it’s inventive to compare people’s locations using their smartphones. Rather, it’s all the more important to protect the… 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 ›
Throwing Out the FTC's Suit Against Qualcomm Moves Antitrust Law in the Wrong Direction
The government bestows temporary monopolies in the form of patents to promote future innovation and economic growth. Antitrust law empowers the government to break up monopolies when their power is so great and their conduct is so corrosive of competition… 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 ›
Guitar Villain? Ubisoft Patents Basic Teaching Techniques
In 2012, Ubisoft launched an educational video game called Rocksmith. The idea was simple: why get good at playing a toy guitar, as in games like “Guitar Hero,” when you can use—and learn to play—the real thing? Their game helps… Read More ›
Victory! EFF Defends Public’s Right to Access Court Records About Patent Ownership
The public’s right of access to court proceedings is well-established as a legal principle, but it needs constant defending. In part, that’s because private parties keep asking publicly-funded courts to resolve their disputes in secret. As we and others have… Read More ›