“With well over $100 billion in the bank, it’s no great surprise that Apple, more than any other company on the planet, finds itself on the receiving end of lawsuits initiated by patent trolls,” Yoni Heisler reports for TUAW. “In 2012 alone, Apple was hit with 44 lawsuits from patent trolls, otherwise known as non-practicing entities (NPE).”
“While many topics in the tech world are often the cause of intense and passionate debate, the one issue that seemingly everyone can agree upon is that patent trolls are nothing more than poisonous entities looking to make a quick buck by piggybacking off of the success of others,” Heisler reports. “The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce a new plan intent on minimizing the prevalence and impact of lawsuits brought forth by patent trolls. All told, Obama’s plan includes five executive actions and seven legislative recommendations.”
Read more in the full article here.
“To help deter questionable lawsuits, the Obama administration plans to, among other things, direct the Patent and Trademark Office to start a rule-making process aimed at requiring patent holders to disclose the owner of a patent, according to senior Obama administration officials,” Jared A. Favole and Brent Kendall report for The Wall Street Journal. “In addition, the president plans to ask Congress to pass legislation that would allow sanctions on litigants who file lawsuits deemed abusive by courts, officials said.”
“Obama is expected to direct the patent office to train examiners to scrutinize applications for overly broad patent claims,” Favole and Kendall report. “He also is looking to rein in the growing use of the International Trade Commission to settle patent disputes. In recent years, patent-holding firms have increasingly filed infringement claims at the ITC, which has jurisdiction over certain unfair trade practices and can bar the importation of products that infringe patents. The ITC process usually moves more quickly than a patent-infringement case in federal court.”
Favole and Kendall report, “The Obama administration would like Congress to change certain ITC legal standards and ensure that the agency has flexibility in hiring its judges. The president will order a review of existing procedures at the ITC, officials said.”
Read more in the full article here.
If Obama is true to form this means he intends to empower patent trolls.
Idiot.
Remember “we’re closing Guantanamo as soon as I’m elected”? In that interview in November 2008, Kroft asked Obama if he planned to “take early action” to shut down Guantanamo. Obama replied, “Yes.”
“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,” he said.
And then the little thing about ending the wars. Oh yeah, and the pledge to make the most open and accountable administration in history..
As it turns out, when Obama pledges to end something, it really means to get ready for a doubling down on the stupidity.
Get your google glasses running and look this stuff up yourself.
Obama can not close Guantanamo because Republicans oppose it, but he can release the detainees that are unlawfully held there without a trial and do not considered to by guilty of anything. He also has administrative power to move other prisoners to USA’s mainland and to trial them.
Obama does nothing of that, pretending that Republicans prohibit him doing anything, which is false.
Obama’s 2008 campaign was one of the biggest lies in USA’s electoral history. He did not mean almost any of his progressive points, he is conservative Republican that pretends to be Democrat.
I love the idiot things people say about Obama. He’s hitler. He’s a communist. He’s a conservative in Sheep’s clothing. Blah blah
I think that any discussion of politics on the Internet in this kind of setting is a fool’s game and a waste of time. I think that MDN should avoid posting these kinds of stories because they are clearly here to bring out those who have little else to do than to try to get others to respond to their diatribe, and, as now, all too often succeed. I will say no more on the topic. I will in the future avoid any article on MDN that might engender this kind of nonsense. Even then though, I expect F12T14 to spew his idiocy somewhere where I’ll read it.
Just sit back with some popcorn and enjoy the fun. Think of it as “The Three Stooges Meet Frankenstein.”
Not to be remiss, settle in for the movie marathon featuring Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, the Invisible Man, The Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and BLN.
Most excellent! And don’t forget episodes of MST 3000…
😆
Funny, I just watched Abbott and Costello meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!
Here, here!!
It is “Hear Hear”
Obama is a pure fuckup. Worse than Jimmy ‘dumbfuck’ Carter.
Well, the real battle is likely to be between different factions of our Corporate Oligarchy. Whoever has the most punch, aka dollar$, wins the puppet. And Obama has already proven that he’s just another Corporate Oligarchy puppet. 😛
You are true to form by spreading your closed minded hate.
Yeah right, Obama. Anything to distract from the Benghazi scandal. The American people want answers!
Bland what are you looking for in Benghazi that hasn’t been already said? There was no cover up. The republican congress shorted the security funds. It was a coordinated terrorist attack using the cover of protestors to get in close and disguise their actions,
Although a terrible tragedy, it is no worse than many bombings that happen at our embassies around the world throughout the years.
If Obama needed more money for embassy security then maybe he should’ve taken some from his failed trillion dollar stimulus boondoggle. Maybe there’d be more money for security if Obamacare wasn’t driving the economy off a cliff. Obama’s got some explaining to do. This is a worse coverup than Watergate and Barack Nixon better fess up or face impeachment.
The biggest troll of all? The government of the United States led by a bunch of donkeys in suits.
Garumpf! I am confused, my precious ring of conservitude – Obama seems to be doing something good for true competition.
Garumpf! Shut-up. Government regulation always evil, my precious!
But this will help Apple, Apple is our friend!
Garumpf! Shut-up, we don’t have any friends – go read some more Ayn Rand!
And so, Garumpf’s holding on to ideological conservatism’s narrative, slips deeper into cognitive dissonance and madness, as history plays out differently than expected.
How about we drop both ideological conservatism and liberalism, and try to see reality more clearly. The true adversaries to peace and prosperity are in our hearts. Our fellow earth-inhabitants (neighbours) are to be treasured and respected and not just seen as obstacles or means to our own advancement. Government can be evil, and can be helpful; cooperations can be evil, and can be helpful. The problem is not in the idea of the institutions of themselves, but in the hearts of those that run them. This is why both government and cooperations need to be regulated / checked / balanced to the extent needed so that they will encouraged true sustainable growth and justice, and restrict the use of these institutions for evil.
Garumpf apologizes for bad spelling: should be corporations not cooperations.
Lawyers (POTUS) asking lawyers (CONGRESS) to cease and desist? Yeah, like that works.
So all you fracktards bitch constantly about patent trolls on here and when someone finally steps in to help fix the problem you bitch about that too. There is no pleasing you myopic assholes. Christ I hate MDN sometimes. Entitled little pricks, the lot of you.
you’re just jealous of my ObamaPhone.
Now I see why the itc decision was delayed. Potus needed time to appear tobe the good guy and appear he is above the fray and is interested in helping companies like apple.
They want apple to settle with the DOJ. I cannot believe that the itc would do what it did. The pressure is on for a quid pro quo. Apple settles the ebook case then potus vetoes the itc.
I actually think that one should not be able to own or hold a patent if you are not using it or used it not long ago. Companies that don’t produce anything should not be able to use patents to sue others if they aren’t at least working in the same field. At least something like that. Nike for an example should not be able to acquire a camera patent from Kodak and go after Sony and Apple. That is not really what the patent system intended.
Wow…
I just locked at the comments and what can u say… Most Americans are idiots? Instead of arguing about the issue this turns into a Pro Con Obama and politics debate….
This was about patents you… you… Sigh…