Hi there! Support for patent reform continues to build. In case you missed it, on Wednesday 50 groups sent a letter to leadership in the House and Senate urging for them to #fixpatents. CCIA and other tech groups were signatories, as was the MPAA, and stakeholders from industries as diverse as retail, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and financial services. The consensus that this is a massive problem has been building for a while, but this was definitely a milestone.
In addition to the above-linked post on the ‘Big Tent’ letter, this week also featured two posts on Patent Progress by Matt Levy — one about Microsoft and Motorola and one about Apple and Samsung — on the smartphone wars and the unlikely role of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in patent litigation at the ITCInternational Trade Commission.
The New York Times continues to give attention to patent reform, and had two articles this week on notorious patent trolls: one on Intellectual Ventures on Wednesday, which also focused on the FTC’s new strategy that was announced by Chairwoman Edith Ramirez at CCIA’s recent event, and one on IPNav on Saturday, that quoted Alan Schoenbaum, James Bessen, and Dan Ravicher.
Another interesting post from this week was by Washington Post Wonkblog’s Timothy Lee, which told the stories of several entrepreneurs from startups that have been sued by patent trolls.
Finally, yesterday there was an announcement that a patent monetization company has made a deal to acquire patents from the Rockstar Consortium, a group of companies who acquired the Nortel portfolio. There is not a lot of information yet, but this is a development to follow.
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
