EFF to Fight Dubious Patents

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Randy Burge <burge () proactive to>
> Date: April 20, 2004 7:49:30 AM PDT
> To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () dandin com>
> Subject: Wired News: EFF to Fight Dubious Patents
>
>
> EFF to Fight Dubious Patents  By Amit Asaravala
>
> Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63122,00.html
> 02:10 PM Apr. 19, 2004 PT
>
> The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a campaign on Monday to overturn
> several patents that it says are having a "chilling effect" on public and
> consumer interest.
>
> In a white paper posted to its website, the civil liberties group targeted
> 10 patents in particular, including one awarded to Amazon.com for one-click
> shopping and another awarded to California lawyer Lawrence Lockwood for
> online credit card payments. The two patents are frequently cited by critics
> of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as examples of how patents can do
> more harm than good for the software industry.
>
> Wendy Seltzer, an attorney for the EFF, said in an interview Monday that the
> goal of the new campaign is to prevent questionable patents like these from
> being used against individuals and small businesses.
> "Traditionally, corporations have used patents to protect their work, but
> we've been seeing patents more and more frequently asserted against
> nonprofits and individuals and other nontraditional targets for patent
> enforcement," said Seltzer.
>
> "In fighting these patents, our first goal is to help clear out specific
> instances of patents that are clogging the works and then point the way to
> change the law to prevent future violations," she added.
> The EFF will begin its campaign by compiling prior art, or evidence, that it
> hopes will help prove that each of the targeted patents was wrongly awarded..
> The organization will also collect data about any negative effects that the
> patents may have had on individuals and small businesses. The information
> will then be presented to the patent office in requests to re-examine the
> patents.
>
> <snip>
>
> <http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,63122,00.html>


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