Patent Law

Rick Merritt writes in the April 20, 2009 cover story of EE Times:

The industry has a bad case of mad patent disease.  The patent reform bill working its way through Congress could ease some symptoms, but it won't eradicate the scourge.

On the other hand, the engineers who develop patentable technologies in the first place could help find the cure for mad patent disease -- but first they need to understand its epidemiology.

"Mad" in this case stands for mutually assured destruction, the Cold War-era philosophy that justified nuclear proliferation.  This skewed strategy, lampooned in the movie "Doctor Strangelove," has become integral to how the electronics industry handles intellectual property.

How to recognize and treat mad patent disease:

THE SYMPTOMS

1. Companies file too many, low-quality patents

2. Trolls, operating companies aggressively buy and assert patents

3. Companies license patents without reviewing them
4. Companies encourage engineers not to read patents
5. Applications provide too little or too much prior art

THE TREATMENTS

1. Patent Reform Act of 2009

2. Engineering activism
3. Better corporate compensation for patent work
4. Fix patent office
5. Make licensing simpler

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