Patent Trolls?

This article, discussing the recent conference titled "Patent Trolls and Patent Property Rights" begins:

Intel Corp's David Simon, chief patent counsel for the world's biggest computer chipmaker, recalls when he used to get only about five letters a year from people accusing Intel of patent infringement and demanding cash.

That was back in 1997. Now the Santa Clara, California-based company gets that many letters in a week, Simon said in an interview.

He even received one from the owner of a patent for a drill used to make a hacksaw blade.

The Impossibility of Patents

This article from InformationWeek begins:

Either patents are the first line of defense for the garage-based inventor, or they're tools of the ruling class intended to block innovation and maintain lucrative monopolies. Either the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is spinning wildly out of control, or it's stretching to meet the demands of a changing business landscape. Both sides of the argument have their adherents, and both are simplistic and flawed. Patents are a fact of business life, one that many companies have to come to terms with, whether it's through litigation, settlement, or something as drastic as what eBay may be facing--a change in business model. True to form, Microsoft wants to be both patent powerhouse and arbiter of change.

Among other things, the recent eBay lawsuit is discussed.

Another Amazon Patent Controversy

Folks, Amazon just can't win. First the infamous "one-click patent" and now an uproar of negativity and accusations surrounding their new patent, which is "a system and method of determining the age of an item recipient, such a gift recipient." Again, we can see that the USPTO's focus is utility, novelty, and non-obvious -- not possible social or moral implications of a patent.

According to this article:

[Karen Coyle, a spokesperson for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility] explained that the system outlined in the patent allows Amazon to track the age-appropriateness of gifts to a recipient over time in order to make suggestions for future gifts.

Gathering information about children for an online retailer like Amazon can be dicey because that practice is regulated by federal law, the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act, or COPPA.

"That law states that you cannot gather personal identification information about a child without a parent's permission," Coyle said. "It looks like there's a good chance that if they were to implement this patent, which they claim they haven't, that they could come up against U.S. law."