Oops! Thanks for reminding me. I don’t want to cause any confusion for others that might not know the difference.

Stan~

Usually a single post here is worth about 3 comments posted to various other places. Gene has a remarkable ability to attract attention to the real issues in question, at some of the highest levels. For me in particular, it is greatly appreciated.

Stan~

Since the FTC seems to be so biased, it might take some diligence to convince them to at least keep their minds open to the possibilities. Somewhat surprising, since they are supposed to be my last line of defense against infringing products being imported into the US.

There are several very clever folks present here, so I expect that this will not pass without some active protest. The FTC should not be allowed to modify what Congress has instructed them to do. It is probably one, or maybe two folks there at the FTC that have promoted this trend. Perhaps some higher oversight might be in order.

Stan~

FTC and DOG; where were you when Bernie Madoff and his minions were ripping off thousands and thousands of people of millions and millions of dollars . . . for over 20 years?

That’s right; nowhere.

Where were you from the years 2000 – 2007 while home loan lenders and Wall Street crooks were lying, cheating, and stealing their way to untold billions in elicit gains . . . sening the US and most of the Western World into the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression?

A Great Recession that the World has still not climbed itself out of.

That’s right; nowhere.

What other Ponzi schemes, frauds, and ripoffs are operating right now that you should be putting a stop to . . . instead of trying to weaken and let others steal the creations of hard-working American inventors?

(I hope you folks above share your excellent, very lucid points with the FTC / DOJ.)

I am also a bit mystified why they and Congress are so quick to reduce the value of patents, in favor of those that have already made it into industry. All the whining about all those evil NPE’s and Patent Trolls is just that, and little else. The litigation rate is less than 1% of all patents, and somehow we have a huge problem? I think not.

During his testimony before the House during the 2009 effort at patent reform, Dean Kamen was saying almost exactly the same thing that AC is. Near the end of his testimony, he said very passionately that the Only thing a start-up company or independent inventor had going for them was a valid Patent, and little else. If you devalue the patents my making them easier to get around or invalidate, you are seriously damaging the possible creative output of the smaller entities, with potentially a huge effect upon the US economy.

It might take a decade or so for it to *trickle down* and even be very noticeable, but by then the various Senators and Representatives will most likely have retired from office, and it will probably be too late to turn the ship around in time to help the economy recover any time soon. Just all the uncertainty over the last 5 years or so has had a pretty large dampening effect, which is only just now being recognized.

Stan~

The 1st allows entrepreneurs control over their monopolies – whether to build products, or to eventually sell their patents to the NPE’s and PAE’s (and possibly move on to continue innovating). While the 2nd takes from the 1st until there is nobody left to copy from.

The anti-NPE/PAE crowd are the same folks who tell startups and individual inventors to go pound sand. The only tools the little guy has to compete with these moneyed power-brokers are patents, and the anti-NPE/PAE effort is their way of killing them off altogether.

JM makes an interesting point. Aren’t NPE/PAE’s essentially doing in patents what ASCAP does for copyrights?

They should call this seminar “How to Lynch the PAEs.” The Antitrust Division of the DOJ and the FTC are notoriously anti-patent and have been that way ever since I’ve been in practice (now over 35 years).

Where is the panel that presents and discusses the rampant, reckless, out of control stomping on others IP?

Where is the panel on how this will affect the small innovators?

The hunt has begun, small innovators are the witches that must be destroyed.

I have to be suspicious when the announcement say: “PAE activities often include purchasing patents from existing owners and seeking to maximize revenues by licensing the intellectual property to (or litigating against) manufacturers who are already using the patented technology.”

In what world is maximizing revenue a bad thing, as suggested by that comment? In what world should it be an antitrust violation or concern of the government when an owner of a patent right goes after “manufacturers who are already using the patented technology”?

Seriously, all the issues facing the U.S. right now and this is how the FTC and DOJ are going to occupy themselves? For crying out loud they didn’t even seem to know that the IPO is having their annual PTO Day on the 10th of December. Or do you suppose that scheduling was intentional? With all those who support patents otherwise occupied?

-Gene