Patent Trolling

Wired magazine recently posted a brief interview with Forgent's CEO, Jay Peterson. It discussed Forgent's claim that they owned all the rights to the popular, and originally free, JPEG image compression format. Forgent has sued 31 companies, including Apple, Dell, Kodak, Xerox, and Microsoft over their supposed "ownership." After this, they're moving on to TiVo and Replay, which, due to another patent, they also claim they have the rights to royalties over anything DVR.

This, good readers, is a process known as Patent Trolling. Through the... *ahem* ..."Reinterpretation" of existing patents that have little or nothing to do with the matter at hand, the companies in question demand royalties for "their" inventions.

A second, and even more reprehensible, method is applying for a patent for something that already exists, but is not covered by a patent. For example, the ubiquitous Progress Bar (the little bar that goes across the screen to tell you how far a task such as an installation or download has gone) was actually patented!

In another case, a popular Japanese "Ichitaro" word processor was ordered to be destroyed years after the fact, because a competitor said that it owned the patent for the Help icon!

For a pretty good (if over-stylized) list of ten bad ones, read the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Most Wanted" page.

Although my love for the "Big Companies" like Microsoft, Apple, and Dell is measured in quantities so small they are not worth being measured, this practice is a danger to innovation and small companies trying to make it big on original ideas. A single lawsuit can destroy a small company, or even shake the foundations of larger ones. It represents one of the major problems with our current patent system.

As is usual, the bad guys don't see it as a problem. Bad guys never see themselves as bad guys, it never works that way. Through the miracle of rationalization, they see themselves as victims, or even public benefactors.

For example, the spokesperson for the company behind the shutdown of the Ichitaro word processor said ""We are a global enterprise and we are just following international practice to enforce our IP rights." (I.E., victim mentality.)

Forgent's CEO claimed "We're injecting the proceeds from the patent into other technologies, other businesses. We'll be able to create new opportunities, growth, and technologies, and more jobs and careers for talented engineers, in addition to rewarding our shareholders." (I.E., benefactor mentality.)

(Of course, when the person realizes someone doesn’t have the same viewpoint, it leads to situations like the abrupt termination of the Wired interview. No one wants to hear that their rationalizations are flawed.)

But rationalized or not, making your way on someone else’s hard work through legal fiat is wrong, plain and simple. It will, bluntly, put another nail in the coffin of innovation. It will destroy many small companies along the way. It will cost consumers millions (as the money financing lawsuits has to come from somewhere). And it will lead to more profiteering by other individuals and corporations looking to find a payday in someone else’s hard work.

Only through patent reform, specifically people with true computer knowledge in charge of granting computer patents, can this be solved. Reform, kids! Reform!