Program turns to online masses to improve patents

September 15th, 2008 By JOELLE TESSLER , AP Technology Writer

(AP) -- Some of the biggest players in the technology industry complain that the U.S. patent system is broken - putting too many patents of dubious merit in the hands of people who can use them to drag companies and other inventors to court.

---

Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

---

Similar stories from PHYSorg:

Rambus settles EU antitrust probe, avoids fines

Jun 12, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

TomTom to pay Microsoft to end patent fight

Mar 30, 2009 | 1.5 / 5 (2) | 0

A patent success

Jan 16, 2009 | 4 / 5 (2) | 0

U.S. High Court Hands Tech Firms Patent Victories

May 03, 2007 | 3.5 / 5 (2) | 0

Patenting human genes thwarts research, scientists say

Jun 04, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 3

• lowbatteries - Sep 15, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: not rated yet
  • rate
  It's good to see they're trying something new, though the complete openness is an issue - especially where a company from China could come and steal your idea and have your product in production before you even get approved.
  • flag
• weewilly - Sep 15, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: not rated yet
  • rate
  Secrecy until an award for Patent Pending or the actual item, needs to be done quietly and not openly. Why not just publish it in the newspapers then?
  • flag
• Roj - Sep 16, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: not rated yet
  • rate
  Intellectual property thieves search patents immediately after their approved & published. Patent insurance to fund international litigation projects has provided partial royalty recovery.
  • flag