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Today's WSJ Online says:
Vonage Holding Corp., a leader in the Internet telephone business, is facing a bevy of patent-infringement suits seeking billions of dollars in damages -- actions that experts say could hamper the growth of the nascent Web-calling industry if Vonage loses. . . . . Vonage declined to comment on the suits but has said in court filings that the Sprint and Verizon patents are invalid or don't apply to its services. In a court filing, Vonage said some of the patents cited by Sprint are so vague that they are unenforceable.
I have no idea of the merits here, but there is a concern that this is fall-out from the patent quality problem. Patents should represent genuine advances, not simply the obvious froth on the advancing wave of technology, and if they meet this standard then they should be enforced fiercely. But if they are trivial, or represent game-playing efforts at a posteriori constructions of ambiguous claims, or an effort "to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies," then they should go down.
Among the problems created by poor patents is pressure on large companies to slap patents on everything in sight -- in might be patentable, and if you don't act you are derelict in your obligations to your shareholders.
posted by James DeLong @ 8:29 AM | Patents
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