aNewDomain.net — Our Tom Ewing, an IP expert and advisor to the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization, and Robin Feldman, a law prof at the University of California at Hastings, sat down to talk to former U.S. Attorney General and PA governor Dick Thornburgh about whether such so-called Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) as Intellectual Ventures pose harm to the U.S. economy.
This appears in the Spring 2013 edition of the ultra-conservative Washington Legal Foundation pub. Bipartisan consensus appears to be forming as to the activities of firms like IV, which buy and sell patents and make money by suing, as opposed to inventing or licensing their own inventions.
As aNewDomain.net told you last month last month, sources inside the the FTC and DOJ tell us they are prepping an investigation on the anti-competitive nature of such activity, pejoratively known as “patent trolling.” This article comes a hair short of confirming that. Read closely.
Scroll below for Feldman’s letter urging the USPTO to adopt guidelines for more transparency that would curb secretive behavior. For instance, who is VirnetX — the firm that sued Microsoft and Apple for patent infringement recently — or who is Personal Audio LLC — the firm that sued Adam Carolla? We had to do a lot of digging — digging that transparency proponents like Feldman say should be unnecessary, given that IP is in the public record once the USPTO grants it.
On Patent Trolls: PA Governor interview with Tom Ewing, Robin Feldman, IP experts by Gina Smith
USPTO Suggested Changes to Patent Assignment Records, Transparency by Gina Smith
