Patent Defense
“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has proposed new rules that would severely restrict the public’s ability to challenge improperly granted patents. If adopted, they will give patent trolls exactly what they’ve wanted for years: a way to keep bad patents alive and out of reach.” – EFF.org
Submit comments by December 2nd, opposing this regulatory change.
How to do it:
Trolls register patents that are overly broad, or cover commonsense solutions, then sue companies producing products that could theoretically be covered by the patent. Their profit is lawsuits, not innovation. Currently anyone can challenge these bad patents. Learn more about this bad regulation. Learn more about trolls at EFF.org’s explanation.
Here is the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s sample comment to help you get you started:
I oppose the USPTO’s proposed rule changes for inter partes review (IPR), Docket No. PTO-P-2025-0025. The IPR process must remain open and fair. Patent challenges should be decided on their merits, not shut out because of legal activity elsewhere. These rules would make it nearly impossible for the public to challenge bad patents, and that will harm innovation and everyday technology users.
This post illustrated with an image from UnSplash (https://unsplash.com/license) or Wikimedia Commons (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
