aggiehawg said:
Quote:
The usefulness of patents to entrepreneurs went downhill on a rocket sled after that, and it made it a lot easier for all of the companies on Sand Hill rd (read, Google, Cisco, Facebook, etc) to simply steal the technology that they wanted to integrate into their products.
Sad to hear that as I was unaware of that level of dilution in patent law starting under Obama. Reminds me of Atlas Shrugged as getting rid of patents and copyrights figured prominently in the takeover of American industry and why the best people dropped out to Galt's Gulch.
Funny. I have compared Michelle Lee to James Taggart a number of times.
AIA invented the patent trial and appeals board, which invalidates about 50% of the claims it reviews, makes patent litigation too long and too expensive for outside investors in most cases (which are required to help entrepreneurs protect their patented inventions, because your average patent litigation is going to cost you $5M to $10M just to get through DCT, and contingency lawyers typically don't want to fund the $2 - $5M out-of-pocket for experts), and was rampantly abused by at least Apple, Google, and Facebook with blatant corruption.
The pendulum is swinging back slowly thanks to some helpful rulings from the CAFC related to PTAB, and changes to administration of PTAB by USPTO directors appointed by Biden (to protect pharma) and Trump (again, mostly to protect pharma). Now that the powers that be are actually inventing tech (AI) as opposed to stealing and incorporating tech into their products (see smartphones and social media), and are seeing decent foreign competition (see China) it might swing back quite a bit.
Patent litigation still exists, but now is primarily a game of kings between technology juggernauts. Patents have ceased to be useful to entrepreneurs except in the rarest of cases.
It takes a special kind of brainwashed useful idiot to politically defend government fraud, waste, and abuse.