Week 12: Patent Trolls

A patent is a way of protecting ideas for inventions from being stolen by others. Patents allow people to claim the rights to certain ideas for products and receive protection for these rights for a certain amount of time. Patents are important for several reasons. Ethically, patents provide legal protection by preventing stealing of people’s ideas. Economically, patents allow companies to create unique products and be protected from others infringing by creating products exactly the same. Socially, patents provide an established law for protecting inventors and creators and ensuring that original ideas from small companies aren’t stolen by large companies.

I do think patents should be granted. There are those who abuse patents, such as in the case of VirnetX, whose sole goal is to claim patents for things they never actually intend to create, but which they hope to get money from companies that infringe on their patent. However, patents are important to innovation. If creators have no protection for their ideas, then there would not be as much incentive to innovate. In addition, patents are important for small companies to be successful as unique ideas they have need to be protected lest big companies steal them. An argument against patents is that they stifle innovation by preventing others from developing technology or ideas. This is the view Tesla took when they removed all their patents, and this view certainly has some merit. However, I think that for a small company, or even a single creator, patents provide valuable protection that allow them to innovate and develop ideas, which is important.

I think patents on software are essential. Software creation has huge potential and people are constantly using it for new, creative purposes. Software innovation has just as much merit as hardware or other physical innovation for patents. However, I agree with the In re Bilski decision by the Federal court on the matter, which outlines the requirements for software to patentable as: "(1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing."

Despite the fact that I believe patents are important to keep in place, I acknowledge that there are flaws in the system which allow patent trolls to thrive. People should not be allowed to simply sit on patents without developing them just to collect money from those who infringe on their patent. An example of abuse of the system is in the case outline in When Patents Attack! where David Rose sold his company/patents for a photosharing site. The company that bought his company just sat on the product without developing, waiting. Then, they raised lawsuits against over a hundred companies who had created similar services. This is a clear abuse of the system. I think the patent system should remain as is protects the small innovators, however, it needs to be refined to prevent patent trolls.