Patent Laws are a joke!
I cannot possibly be the only one on this earth that thinks that the current state of affairs concerning patent laws are completely laughable. Case in point, Blackberry. Yes, i happen to own one and yes, i am Canadian and we Canadians tends to huddle around each other when things get bad...but seriously, anyone with a sliver of a brain can see how NTP, the US company that claims they have patents infrindged by RIM (Research In Motion) the maker of the Blackberry is just completely bogus and should not be able to stand up in court. I mean...doesn't someone have to had created something, made something...made it work?
Do we all understand here that NTP never created "a Blackberry like" device? Do we get that they didn't even CREATE a technology, not even a fake technology that failed...or even worked? They patented an "idea". Its like if I went out in the 30's or 40's and tried to (and successfully) patented "any moving vehicle that can penetrate the earth's outer atmosphere." Wow, wouldn't i be rich now. I wouldn't have had to even create it, let alone prove that it could be done. I just have to prove that no one else thought of it first. What a load of rubbish.
I have recently seen an approved patent for a Web technology...approved not that long ago...that could sink at least 10 companies. The thing is, if the US patent company in their diligent research had even looked hard enough (read: done a Google search), they would have seen that there was a patent pending on the same thing from years before...and yet...they approved it. So that's more money and more legal hullaballoo that has to take place to fight the patent that should never have been approved.
There are articles written, in regards to the Blackberry case, that the US Patent office doesn't have enough people to do the research. So hire them, or don't offer the service! if you can't do it right, then don't do it! Do they not realize that markets, technologies....entrepreneurship itself is at stake?
NTP doesn't even plan to develop the technology...they never did. In fact, they are planning to go after every other company that "enables mobile devices to receive email". Nice. And then what? huge license fees forever that instead of helping an industry develop, mature and innovate...stifles it because consumers can't take the bills?
The next major hearing is scheduled for February 24th, and if unsuccessful, could force RIM to shut down its service in the US and halt sales of the devices.
Other's are getting on the bandwagon...though last week, a technology patent dispute was settled when the UK High Court ruled in favour of Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the BlackBerry wireless email device. The ruling revoked a patent held by Inpro Licensing, which, had it been upheld as valid, could have disrupted services to about 375,000 UK BlackBerry users.
But what about RIM. Just say they win and don't have to pay. Fighting this in court for years will certainly erode any research and development they might normally be doing. they just won't have the dough to move on and compete.
I think perhaps i'm not conveying my anger properly. I just don't understand a government that keeps offering services that are so bad they are actually dangerous. I think Slate has got it right with their recent article, Weapons of Business Destruction: How a tiny little "patent troll" got BlackBerry in a headlock.
I don't think i could have said it better myself.
