Yesterday, the FTCU.S. Federal Trade Commission. An independent regulatory agency charged with consumer protection and competition policy, which conducted several influential studies on how patents work in practice. Authored several key studies: 2003’s To Promote Innovation: The Proper Balance of Competition and Patent Law and Policy [PDF] and 2011’s The Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition [PDF]. and DOJ held a workshop on the anticompetitive effects of Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), as Josh had posted about last week. They put together a great collection of participants, and we commend them for this effort. Jorge Torres compiled a Storify of Tweets from the event, featuring many from @PatentProgress. David Balto and Brendan Coffman also had an op-ed in The Hill yesterday entitled “Eradicating patent trolls,” where they concluded:
Fortunately the FTCU.S. Federal Trade Commission. An independent regulatory agency charged with consumer protection and competition policy, which conducted several influential studies on how patents work in practice. Authored several key studies: 2003’s To Promote Innovation: The Proper Balance of Competition and Patent Law and Policy [PDF] and 2011’s The Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition [PDF]. and DOJ are holding hearings on PAEs. This is long overdue. The agencies should use all of their powers to bring attention to the harm of PAEs so that the creative forces of innovation can be unrestrained. The purpose of the patent system is to promote innovation, not litigation.
Check out their great article, which had a lot to say about the harms of patent trolls. And if you’re interested in these issues and this opportunity for patent reform, be sure to submit written comments, which are due by March 10, 2013.
