Patents are supposed to foster innovation, but modern software patents have been weaponized against inventors. Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is launching “Defend Innovation,” a new patent reform project to promote seven fixes for America’s patent system.
“The software patent system is broken. Patents are supposed to help promote new inventions and ideas, but software patents are chronically misused to limit competition, quash new tools and products, and shake down companies big and small,” said EFF Staff Attorney Julie Samuels. “It’s time for Internet users, inventors, activists, and academics to team up and fix the problem.”
EFF has posted seven proposals for software patent reform at Defendinnovation.org, including shortening the term for software patents from 20 years to no more than five years, allowing winning parties in litigation to recover fees and costs, and ensuring that infringers who arrive at a patented idea independently aren’t held liable, for example.
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