Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Something positive people can do

Author:Chris Hanson
Posted:2/28/2000; 9:52:57 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 2/27/00
Msg #:15314 (In response to 15313)
Prev/Next:15313 / 15315

One of the reasons that small companies can't afford to fight patent lawsuits is because the patent law is broken in one very fundamental way: You're presumed guilty of infringement and must prove your innocence in court.

This is terribly backwards from the rest of the system of justice we have in our country. Fixing this and requiring companies filing patent infringement suits to post a bond when filing suit (in case they lose their suits) would go a long way towards fixing the system.

(After that, we can get patents trimmed from 20 years -- they were extended by GATT -- to 3 or 5 years, and then we can implement punitive damages when companies can be demonstrated to have knowingly filed bogus patents...)



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