Startups are teaming up with so-called patent trolls...
Startups are teaming up with so-called patent trolls because the patent system is so broken, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/18Gub5G). It pointed to partnerships between the intelligent thermostat company Nest and the patent assertion…
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entity (PAE) Intellectual Ventures and between the eyeglass company Ditto and the PAE IPNav, saying “this reveals the fundamentally broken nature of the patent system -- a system ostensibly around to promote innovation.” The patent system is now more about litigation than innovation, it said, which has forced small startups “into tight corners.” In a separate blog post Thursday, Public Knowledge called Intellectual Ventures “two-faced” (http://bit.ly/18GuL3n). The company says “they are champions of invention and they're quick to point out their health and medical research,” PK wrote. But “everyone else” sees the other side of the story, it wrote. “The side that preys on businesses without penalty, that buys up patents to sue innovators building companies, and that ultimately keeps innovation at a standstill while raking in massive profits.” In response, Intellectual Ventures Chief Policy Counsel Russ Merbeth told us the public interest groups were lumping Intellectual Ventures with other companies with different business models. “They malign us and use us as an attention grabber, but what they talk about really isn’t IV, although they like to keep attributing things to us. It doesn’t really say much that is about us,” he said.