Patents are something that the majority of Americans aren’t too familiar with. While they run our daily lives, and we interact with the fruits of their labor on an almost constant basis, the average person hasn’t been exposed to what it means to protect “intellectual property,” and how that affects the world’s market.
A patent gives an inventor the right to exclusively make, use, or sell something that they have invented or perfected beyond what the average person would see as an obvious solution. This right is granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and must go through a lengthy, fairly gray process of application, comparison, and judgment before a patent can be issued. What a patent does is protect intellectual property from being copied or used without the inventor’s consent. A patent lasts a specified number of years depending on what it is protecting (a design, invention, etc.).
But what does that matter to the consumer? To the market place? Patents have grown into some kind of beast since their own creation. These seemingly beneficial rights have turned into something so much more than a protective document, and it is starting to become more of a liability than a help in some industries.
The term “patent troll” refers to a company or individual who gathers patents, buying them off of inventors or other patent owners. Patent trolls don’t intend to use the patent to produce or manufacture anything. Instead, these companies gather patents and bide their time. As soon as someone uses one of their patents or in some way infringes on the rights that they have as a patent holder, they pounce in full force, demanding to settle with the unknowing violators or else take them to court.
For a small business, or most businesses that haven’t become household names, lawsuits are out of the question. It isn’t unreasonable for a lawsuit of this nature to cost the defendants between two and five million dollars, something that most companies can’t and won’t afford. For them, settling is a much better option than taking the dispute to court. These settlements often still leave the companies accused for dead, and the patent trolls know it.
The term “patent troll” refers to a company or individual who gathers patents, buying them off of inventors or other patent owners.
But what does this do to the technology industry? The technology industry is a fast-paced river of innovation. The time it takes for a phone or computer to be knocked from its place as the newest, best product is just a few months. When some of these patents last 14-20 years, that prevents innovation and limits the amount of growth that the tech world sees. Because of this lack of growth, supply and demand allows the prices of innovative technology to grow and grow past what they should, making the market inflated because of patent restrictions.
Patent trolling isn’t only for cover companies. Many of the major corporations that supply us all with the software, cell phones, computers, and other hardware that we use on a daily basis have fallen into a cycle of over protective, preemptive law suits. In the last few months alone there have been dozens of lawsuits involving Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, HTC, and many other household technology names. In June, Samsung’s Galaxy SIII was added to Apple’s suit over unified searching (like Vlingo and Siri, programs that came standard on many smartphones and use the owner’s voice to control many of the phone’s functions) and data tapping (a feature imbedded in many phones’ software that shows the user more options such as clicking a phone number in an email and calling it, copying it, or saving the number to your contacts).
These lawsuits, not only plentiful as of late, but costing both sides millions, is something that many consumers are starting to see as extraneous. Moving towards a more free market, many are suggesting that the patent laws be tightened so that the consumer and the market are benefited. This wouldn’t necessarily be taking away business from companies as long as they could provide what the customers want: innovation. Without over controlling patents (which many people, including the very programmers and software engineers patents have struggled to begin adapting to protect), the market would in theory compete to make the best products in the quickest timeline and sell them for the best price. This not only is good for the consumers buying the products, but also the industry. Having such a “sink-or-float” motivation could prompt a wave of innovation to the industry, with more applications than just to cell phones and applications.
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