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Software patent reform just died in the House

525 points| alecco | 12 years ago |washingtonpost.com

225 comments

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[+] jeswin|12 years ago|reply
I wonder how people associated with Microsoft and IBM deal with the morality issues surrounding them. What they are doing is clearly evil and detrimental to innovation.

Bill Gates receives a lot of credit for his humanitarian work; but at least part of that wealth seems ill-gotten. In my mind, real heroes are people like Torvalds and Stallman; relatively unknown but the impact of their contributions might have already superseded what Gates has been able to accomplish.

[+] RyanZAG|12 years ago|reply
Hardly IBM and Microsoft. The headline should read "thanks to easily bought senators". IBM and Microsoft don't have any real say, only the senators do. If the senators choose to destroy their own country for monetary gain, it's still not the fault of anybody else. This blame shifting is getting old.
[+] salient|12 years ago|reply
In cases of bribe, do you blame only the receiver, or the one who gives bribe, too?

And as a non-American I fully see this as nothing but bribing. The only difference is that in US paying money to pass or fail bills like this is "legal".

[+] kshatrea|12 years ago|reply
Yes, these senators and congressmen are literally so impressionable that the very fact that IBM and Microsoft and other companies are objecting cause these political leaders to become nervous and kill the bills (to put it kindly). It seems to me that America is now on the same page as most other nations: your laws are also bought-and-paid-for by special interest groups in many cases, just like our more corrupt nations and especially mine. Very sad.

edit: grammar

[+] tehwalrus|12 years ago|reply
Someone remind me why wealthy businesses buying amendments to legislation isn't criminal corruption? I have a hard time remembering...
[+] driverdan|12 years ago|reply
Singling out IBM and Microsoft is a bit disingenuous. IBM seems to be the vocal subject in the article but there are far more companies behind the opposition as shown here: http://images.politico.com/global/2013/09/22/final_-_letter_...

The list:

3M

ActiveVideo Networks, Inc.

Adobe Systems

Advanced Technology Ventures

Allison Transmission, Inc.

Architecture Technology Corporation

Beckman Coulter, Inc.

BGC Partners, Inc.

Bi-Level Technologies

Biotechnology Industry Organization

Boston Scientific

Brash Insight Corp.

BSA - The Software Alliance

Cabochon, Inc.

California Healthcare Institute (CHI)

Cantor Fitzgerald L.P.

Caterpillar, Inc.

Ciencia, Inc.

Cleveland Medical Devices Inc.

Colorado Technology Consultants

CONNECT

Cotera Inc.

The Cummins Allison Corporation

Dolby Laboratories

Domain Associates

Donohue Consulting, Inc.

The Dow Chemical Company

DR Systems, Inc.

DuPont

Eatoni Ergonomics, Inc.

Eli Lilly & Company

Embedded Systems LLC

Entrepreneurs for Growth

Entropic Communications, Inc.

ExploraMed Development, LLC

Fairchild Semiconductor

Fairfield Crystal Technology

Fallbrook Technologies Inc.

Flocel Inc.

Forsight Labs

ForSight VISION4, Inc.

Foundry Newco XII, Inc. (d/b/a Twelve)

Freescale Semiconductor

GearMax USA Ltd.

General Electric

General Nanotechnology LLC

Global Network Computers

Great Lakes Neuro Technologies Inc.

Holaira, Inc.

IBM

IEEE-USA

Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Innovation Alliance

Inogen, Inc.

Insight Legal

Interknowlogy

Inventors Network of the Capital Area

IP Advocate

IP Pipeline Consulting, LLC

Irwin Research & Development, Inc. eptember 19, 2013

Johnson & Johnson

Karbonique, Inc.

KeepSight LLC

Kovogen, LLC

Lauder Partners, LLC

Licensing Executives Society (USA & Canada), Inc.

Lightstone Ventures

MediaFriends, Inc.

Medical Device Manufacturers Association

MH Systems, Inc.

Micron Technologies

Microsoft

Miramar Labs, Inc.

Morgenthaler Ventures-Life Sciences

National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)

Neodyne Biosciences, Inc.

NeoTract, Inc.

NeuroPace, Inc.

NeuroWave Systems Inc.

Nevro Corp.

NuGEN Technologies, Inc.

NuVasive, Inc.

OL2, Inc. (OnLive)

Orbital Research Inc.

Patent Office Professional Association

Power Auctions LLC

Precision Combustion

PreEmptive Solutions

Procter & Gamble

Prometheus Research, LLC

Qualcomm

Rearden Companies, LLC

Restoration Robotics, Inc.

Sapheon, Inc.

Software Partners LLC

Soleon Robotics LLC

Tessera

The Foundry LLC

TM Technologies, Inc.

Trading Technologies

U.S. Business and Industry Council

Vibrynt, Inc.

Xerox Corporation

[+] zmmmmm|12 years ago|reply
All those companies are there precisely as cover for the few that really drive the lobbying efforts, so that people like you can pop up on the internet and say how it is not just a minority of companies perverting the law in their own favor. You can fall for it or you can see through it (assuming you are not a paid shill in the first place) - I think we should see through it and call it for what it is: a small minority of enormous companies manipulating laws in their own favor and to the detriment of the people.
[+] sheetjs|12 years ago|reply
According to the article, IBM and Microsoft are notable for their portfolio size and lobbying budgets:

> And few firms have larger software patent portfolios than Microsoft and IBM. These companies, which also happen to have two of the software industry's largest lobbying budgets, have been leading voices against the expansion of the CBM program.

I can believe that IBM does far more software patent lobbying than most of the firms whose core products are not directly software related

[+] linuxhansl|12 years ago|reply
Thanks for the list. All companies I will try to avoid in the future. Look at all the LLCs and the obvious trolls on there.
[+] ddebernardy|12 years ago|reply
Interesting how some household names aren't on that list. Namely Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter.
[+] thrillgore|12 years ago|reply
IBM comes to mind given that they like to sue you for patents out of the blue -- like when you're going IPO.
[+] djcapelis|12 years ago|reply
If anyone here hadn't already, this is yet another reason to drop IEEE memberships.

I dropped mine last year over their copyright policies.

[+] pastycakes|12 years ago|reply
How do you boycott Qualcomm? That's like saying don't buy a cell phone, ever.
[+] phaus|12 years ago|reply
Why am I not surprised that Adobe is on the list. They are one of the O.G. patent trolls. RIP Macromedia.
[+] etler|12 years ago|reply
Why is Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble on this list?
[+] eloff|12 years ago|reply
That settles it, I was tossing around whether to get the Xbox One or the PS4. I'm voting with my wallet and getting the PS4. Fuck Microsoft.
[+] mtgx|12 years ago|reply
Ever since Microsoft started extorting money from open source vendors/OEM's with bogus patents, I've started dropping Microsoft's products as soon as I could.

The only one left is Windows 7, which I can't wait to get rid of in 2-3 years, once either Ubuntu or Android come into their own as more mature mainstream operating systems.

[+] kshatrea|12 years ago|reply
I am assuming you're changing your vote next time for the Green/Constitution/Libertarian party as well? Since I assume you'll treat the congressmen and their political parties who take the lobbying money the same way you treat the corporation that is giving the bribe.
[+] csmuk|12 years ago|reply
Good for you. I threw my win phone out of my car in anger the other day and broke it. I will not be buying another.

I've already decided not to renew my MAPS and MSDN subs again in December thanks to the epic crack smoking going on.

[+] Segmentation|12 years ago|reply
Or buy neither, as Sony isn't any better. PC game on Linux or OS X.
[+] jorgem|12 years ago|reply
Yeah, but at least at Microsoft, no one is eating whales.

My point, is you can find something to hate about every company or group of people.

Why so much hate?

[+] geoka9|12 years ago|reply
What if Sony was also in that bunch? Genuinely curious: I had to make a similar decision a year ago, and since Sony had been on my shitlist because of DRM-related prosecutions, I went for the Xbox.
[+] shmerl|12 years ago|reply
Do you think Sony is any better?
[+] anotherhue|12 years ago|reply
Has anyone noticed that the IEEE appear on this list? They're a non-profit, and if I needed another reason to keep my membership expired, this was it.
[+] moondowner|12 years ago|reply
My thoughts exactly. Glad to keep it expired.
[+] jarjoura|12 years ago|reply
Instead of "voting with dollars" because of companies' lobby groups, why not put your energy into joining EFF or other patent-reform groups?
[+] mrhyperpenguin|12 years ago|reply
The title of the article is really sensationalized. The resolution is still going to pass, just without the "covered business method" (CBM) provision. People in Congress support CBM and are actively trying to find a way to make it work. Plus we could always try and reform software patents at its source and make it harder to grant the lower quality patents.
[+] shmerl|12 years ago|reply
> we’d be forced to oppose the bill

Did IBM become a legislator? Who cares if they oppose the bill or not if that's the right bill to make?

[+] jakejake|12 years ago|reply
We should change the word "lobbying" to "bribing" and then it would make more sense to the average person.
[+] antonpug|12 years ago|reply
Why am I not surprised that IBM and "patent reform died" are on the same line?

Relentless.

[+] dllthomas|12 years ago|reply
We need to stop saying "reform". These people want more patent protection; those people want less. They both want patent reform, so we're gonna give it to them! Those people want to actively import criminals, these people want a 500ft tall wall encasing the US, they all want immigration reform - they have SO MUCH IN COMMON!
[+] anoncowherd|12 years ago|reply
What? No thanks to the thoroughly bribed government itself?
[+] studentrob|12 years ago|reply
Seems like software patent processing would benefit by some simple machine learning tools to help examiners identify similar content. Anyone familiar with what tools they currently use? Muddling about with the law will obviously take forever, the guys in congress have no idea what they are legislating, and the lawyers in corporations have no idea what they are lobbying for, aside from monopoly money.
[+] asnyder|12 years ago|reply
Most everything over the past 3 years have died in the house: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/31/wo....
[+] PKop|12 years ago|reply
So raw number of bills passed is a good proxy for effectiveness as a congressman? I wonder if you think that number of pages per law is also a good measure of success... All things equal, I prefer the government passing less laws than more.
[+] mathattack|12 years ago|reply
While we support what Mr. Goodlatte’s trying to do on trolls, if the CBM is included, we’d be forced to oppose the bill.

OK, so go on the record as opposing it.

[+] iends|12 years ago|reply
Isn't that what the letter was saying?
[+] tzakrajs|12 years ago|reply
How much margin must a company make from their lobbying effort to make it worth destroying the ecosystem around them?