Roundup of This Week’s Patent News: September 6 Edition

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Happy Friday!

This week brought new studies on patent trolls.  One study, by PatentFreedom, brought even more proof that expanding Covered Business Method (CBM) review is essential to help #fixpatents, as the number of trolls using business method patents has increased from 168 to 1423 in eight years; almost 40% of trolls use a business method patent as their weapon of choice.  As Matt Levy explained, only 9% of these patents are financial services patents, which is the only category eligible for CBM review under the 2011 AIA.  Thus, expanding CBM review to cover other types of business method patents is important to lower the burden on businesses being sued across the country.  Also, a new report by Colleen Chien was published by New America Foundation’s OTI; it examines the experiences of VCs and startups with patent assertion from patent trolls.  According to her research, “75% of surveyed venture capitalists (VCs) and 20% of venture-backed startups with patent experience have been impacted by an NPE demand; nearly 90% of all tech VCs have been impacted.”

Patent Progress’s other post from this week is on a patent being issued in which our own Matt Levy was an inventor, 10 years after it was filed!

And last week, there was a post on IP-Watch by CCIA Senior Fellow Brian Kahin, who wrote:  “The USTR’s disapproval of the ITC order excluding Apple products from the US raises difficult issues about the relationship between public decision-making and private solutions – and invites strategic policymaking by other governments.”

Congress is coming back from August recess next week, which means that patent reform will soon be back in full swing.  To get back up to speed, you can find all of the proposed legislation in our Resource Center.  We’ll keep you updated as things develop.

Did we miss something?  Questions or suggestions?  Feel free to leave a comment below, mention us on Twitter (@PatentProgress), or email us: patentprogress[AT]ccianet[DOT]org

Ali Sternburg

Ali Sternburg

Ali Sternburg is Senior Policy Counsel at the Computer & Communications Industry Association. After initially joining as a Legal Fellow in June 2011, she focuses on online copyright issues and other areas of intellectual property policy. She also works on DisCo (the Disruptive Competition Project). She received her J.D. in 2012 from American University Washington College of Law, where she was a Student Attorney in the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic, President of the Intellectual Property Law Society, Senior Symposium Chair and Senior Marketing Manager for the Intellectual Property Brief, and a Dean’s Fellow at the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property. She graduated from Harvard College in 2009 where she studied Government and Music, wrote her senior honors thesis on “Theoretical and Legal Views on U.S. Government Involvement in Musical Creativity Online,” and interned at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.