Entries Tagged 'Patents' ↓

Supreme court allows licensees to challenge patents - artechnica (10 Jan 07)

The Supreme Court has decided that respiratory drug maker MedImmune can dispute the validity of a patent it licenses from Genentech. The Supreme Court’s decision reverses a Federal Circuit Appeals court ruling and establishes a new legal precedent with broad implications and the potential to disrupt many long-standing licensing agreements. Companies are now considered to have the requisite legal standing to challenge patents even if they pay to license them. This shift in patent policy could make it more difficult for large companies to use dubious and questionable patents to perpetually extort licensing fees from smaller companies…

This decision reflects a trend towards serious patent reform and
willingness to throw out older precedents in order to make the patent
system more fair and reasonable.

The big three game console makers are facing a patent lawsuit for their joysticks. It doesn’t sound like the troll has much of a chance fortunately.

Techdirt: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo All Sued For Patent Infringement On Joystick Design

The patent in question is for a low-voltage joystick interface — though, the fact that all of the game consoles on the market today use a similar technique suggests it’s not a particularly non-obvious idea. As the link above notes, the patent holding company has been involved in a few other high profile patent lawsuits, but hasn’t done so well with a few of them. Apparently, though, that’s just incentive to keep on trying.