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Patent Trolls Serve Valuable Role in Innovation, Stanford Expert Says

posted by martyb on Wednesday February 25 2015, @12:05PM   
from the 'valuable'-to-whom? dept.

AnonTechie writes:

So-called patent trolls may actually benefit inventors and the innovation economy, according to a Stanford intellectual property expert. Stephen Haber ( https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/people/stephen-haber ), a Stanford political science professor, suggests in new research that concerns about too much litigation involving patents is misguided.

A patent troll is a person or company that buys patents – without any intent to produce a product – and then enforces those patents against accused infringers in order to collect licensing fees. Some say the resulting litigation has driven up costs to innovators and consumers.

To the contrary, Haber said, his research with Stanford political science graduate student Seth Werfel shows that trolls – also known as patent assertion entities, or PAEs – play a useful intermediary role between individual inventors and large manufacturers.

http://scienceblog.com/77142/patent-trolls-serve-valuable-role-in-innovation-stanford-expert-says/

[Abstract]: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2552734

• Low Opinion of Mr. Haber (Score: 5, Insightful) by Common Joe on Wednesday February 25 2015, @12:52PM

  by Common Joe (33) <common.joe.0101NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday February 25 2015, @12:52PM (#149480) Journal

  I have a very low opinion of Stephen Haber after reading this article. He's either an idiot or (as DrkShadow [soylentnews.org] suggested), he's being paid to say this. Key items from the article:

  Haber explained that the imbalance in financial resources between individual patent holders (inventors) and large manufacturers prevents those inventors from credibly threatening to litigate against infringement. "First, individuals may not be able to cover the upfront costs associated with litigation. Second, unsuccessful litigation can result in legal fees so large as to bankrupt the individual. Therefore, PAEs [Patent Assertion Entities, i.e., Patent Trolls] offer a way for individual inventors to guarantee profits from their patents without having to engage in costly litigation," Haber said.

  Haber suggests that America’s patent system is the best in the world. “They should demand robust evidence that the current system is slowing down innovation. That evidence does not exist,” he wrote in a prior article. For example, a smartphone contains thousands of patented components – but the manufacturer may not own many of them. And so, it must negotiate for the right to use them.

  I didn't bother reading the previous article.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+3
  Insightful=2, Informative=1, Total=3
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5