The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. See also PTO.) is holding the first of its bicoastal roundtables on software patentA generalized term referring to patents whose subject matter extends to computer-implemented code, which have been the subject of great controversy, including but not limited to how they interact with open source software. Although software patents are often denigrated, there is no accepted definition. However, there are a variety of methods for identifying software patents for empirical analysis. See Bessen, A quality today at 12 pm EST (9 am PST) in Palo Alto, CA. The second will be on February 27th in New York City at 9 am EST. A copy of the agenda and list of speakers for today’s briefing can be found here and the event is being webcast live here (password: 123456). There are speakers on both sides of the software patentA generalized term referring to patents whose subject matter extends to computer-implemented code, which have been the subject of great controversy, including but not limited to how they interact with open source software. Although software patents are often denigrated, there is no accepted definition. However, there are a variety of methods for identifying software patents for empirical analysis. See Bessen, A divide. Notable pro-reform speakers include Mark Lemley (Stanford), Colleen Chien (Santa Clara), Julie Samuels (EFF), Jon Potter (Application Developers Alliance) and Edward Goodmann (Hattery Labs). We will be live-tweeting the event on our @PatentProgress account.
This is an important step being taken by the USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. See also PTO.. There is a growing chorus coming from Silicon Valley that there is a software patentA generalized term referring to patents whose subject matter extends to computer-implemented code, which have been the subject of great controversy, including but not limited to how they interact with open source software. Although software patents are often denigrated, there is no accepted definition. However, there are a variety of methods for identifying software patents for empirical analysis. See Bessen, A problem, and it is nice to see the agency in charge travelling west to listen. The same is true for the New York City event, where many Internet startups are being sued by patent trolls.
Hopefully this is not some sort of check the box effort by the USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. See also PTO. to answer the noise from the startup and high tech community, but the start of a process to take a hard look at software patents and how the USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. See also PTO. can take a more active role in reforming the system. Specifically, we think the USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. See also PTO. should look at both the abstract nature of many software patents and the reality that too many patents are being issued, especially obvious patents. We expect that many of the panelists in Palo Alto today and New York on February 27th will address these problems.
If you are interested in doing some pre-event reading, below are some pieces from some of those speaking today:
- Mark Lemley: Software Patents and the Return of Functional Claiming
- Colleen Chien: Startups and Patent Trolls
- Jon Potter: Software Patent Trolls Can Be Stopped by U.S. Patent Office and Congress
- Julie Samuels: Limit Software Patents
- Edward Goodmann: Startups Can’t Give it a Rest on Software Patents
- Tim Molino: Testimony to Congress on Implementation of the Smith-Leahy America Invents Act
- Aaron Greenspan: How to Send a Message to Intellectual Ventures: Boycott Cooley