Law & Apple: Google Supports Apple, Calls Out Patent Trolls

Law & Apple: Google Supports Apple, Calls Out Patent Trolls:
Earlier this week, Google called for sweeping changes of the US Patent system to fend off the biggest threat to the system: patent trolls. Suggesting that Apple has been a recent victim of patent abuse, the Android manufacturer is calling for just three changes that could completely overhaul the way patents are issued and handled. Is it enough?

Google vs. Patent Trolls

Kent Walker, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and current senior vice president & general counsel at Google, wrote an opinion piece at Wired this past Monday that puts the spotlight on a cancer of intellectual property in the United States: patent trolls.
Defining patent trolls as companies that acquire patents for the sole purpose of using them to sue other companies, even though they "never did the hard work of actually creating a real product or service related to the patent claim," Kent describes how this abuse of the system slows down and prevents new innovation and ultimately hurts consumers.
How big of a problem is this? Huge. According to Kent, 2011 saw a record number of patent lawsuits filed in the U.S., totaling over 4,000, and among those software internet patents are being litigated around nine times the rate of any other type of patent. Citing a Boston University School of Law paper (pdf), Kent puts the total cost of patent trolls to U.S. companies at $29 billion a year.

That's how we do.

Kent spotlights Google, Facebook, HP, and Amazon as the companies that are "doing the hard work of creating real products and real services for real people" and are consistently under attack from patent trolls. He clearly left current nemesis Apple off of his list, but later Kent points to Apple's recent $386 million loss to a patent troll as a clear example of patent troll abuse.
So how to fix the problem? One way, according to Kent, would be to revamp the US Patent system by addressing three things: stop issuing bad patents; weed out bad patents already issued; and the establishment of clearer rules for damages and awarding costs.
These changes, however, would require significant government spending, something that would be seen as toxic in the current political climate. But the current resources at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) can't even handle the current workload without an infusion of resources; adding more to their workload might be disastorious. A New York Times article last month detailed the many ills of the USPTO, including an interview with a staffer who admitted that they have only a few hours to spend reviewing each patent, and they make no claim to getting things right in that tight of window.
Kent points out that several private organizations and universities are taking up arms against patent trolls, by establishing databases to track abuse and creating tools to making searching for prior art easier and faster. But without significant government investment, the problem won't be fixed by finding new ways to fight; it has to be addressed at the root, at the USPTO.
"We must improve our patent system to reduce the taxing effects of trolls," Kent writes, "so companies can stop wasting money in court and get back to doing what they do best — building the great products and services we all enjoy."
We think that is the sort of change we can all believe in.
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