EFF starts petition to reform US patent system
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has started a petition to try to reform the US patent system. Among other things, the period of validity of patents should be shorter. There have been noises about reform for some time now.
According to the organization, the existing system for software patents needs to change on seven points. In addition, the EFF wants the validity of patents to be reduced to five years. Also, companies that sue other companies for patent infringement should pay all legal costs if infringement cannot be proven. In addition, people and organizations filing software patent applications must provide an example of software using the technology in question, and information about patent holders and licenses must be publicly available.
The EFF also wants to make it less easy to be accused of patent infringement. Companies that develop a technology in their own way that corresponds to a patented technology should not be sued. Any damages should also be limited, so that companies do not have to pay millions of dollars if the patent in question only concerns a small part of the technology in a certain product.
Finally, the EFF wants the US Congress to look into the usefulness of software patents. There should be an investigation into the economic effects of such patents in the United States. As a result, the EFF suggests that it might be better to abolish such patents altogether. The organization also indicates that it wants to talk to organizations, inventors, lawyers and academics to discuss the current patent system in the US.
The petition was started in response to recent developments around patents and technology. In recent years, many lawsuits have been filed between technology companies that accuse each other of patent infringement. Microsoft, Apple and Samsung play a leading role in this. Patent trolls have also arisen; such companies purchase patents for the sole purpose of suing others and seeking license fees or damages.
The US patent office USPTO previously talked about a reform of the patent system. The organization started a consultation round last year, while the US Congress may pass a new patent law.