Tech firms, lawmaker slam patent trolls, push for copyright reforms

Author: 
Coverage Type: 

Hundreds of new gadgets come out of the Consumer Electronics Show every year -- but to hear some inventors and tech companies talk, thousands of baseless patent suits come out of it, too. “Patent trolling,” the practice of buying up scores of little-known patents solely to sue others for infringement, is hardly a new phenomenon. By some accounts, patent litigation has been on a steady upward slope for nearly 20 years. But 2013 marks the first year that the issue has been taken up at CES, perhaps because litigators have begun chasing after small start-ups and companies well outside the tech field. That’s costing businesses dearly, argued Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and representatives from several tech companies on a panel. Companies lost $29 billion to patent litigation in 2011, Rep DeFazio said. Forbes reports that Google’s senior patent counsel, Suzanne Michel, estimated that an additional $80 billion is “indirectly” wasted when executives and engineers become distracted by the lawsuits.


CES: Tech firms, lawmaker slam patent trolls, push for copyright reforms