Now that we know we have a pulse, here's a low hanging fruit that should be of
interest to the FC community:
Defend Innovation -- http://defendinnovation.org
A recently launched EFF campaign to take on some of the more blatant problems
within the patent system. It's a petition covering 7 proposals
1) A patent covering software should be shorter: no more than five years from
the application date.
2) If the patent is invalid or there's no infringement, the trolls should have
to pay the legal fees.
3) Patent applicants should be required to provide an example of running
software code for each claim in the patent.
4) Infringers should avoid liability if they independently arrive at the
patented invention.
5) Patents and licenses should be public right away. Patent owners should be
required to keep their public records up-to-date.
6) The law should limit damages so that a patent owner can't collect millions
if the patent represented only a tiny fraction of a defendant's product.
7) Congress should commission a study and hold hearings to examine whether
software patents actually benefit our economy at all.
There's some good discussion and attempts at clarification in the comment
threads, you can vote up comments that make the most sense, and the final
distilled material will go to congress in the form of a fancy white paper.
I say we throw a little clout and muscle into this, also curious to hear your
brilliant minds on some of the more complicated nuances being debated on the
site.
In the least, perhaps a little slacktivism and retweet :)
RT @futuresoup: The patent system is broken. Tell congress what's up w/ 7
obvious proposals on @EFF's defendinnovation.org #patentfail
Glad you're all around,
Jacob
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