The Zeitgeist

Here we go again… yet another Patent Troll is going after someone — in this case Apple — for something that so obvious and in fact generic, you’d have to have to be from some other planet not to see that it’s not patentable.

At issue is something known as the “783″ patent, US Patent #7,321,783, which is for something called a “Mobile Entertainment and Communications.”

This patent looks impressive when you open it up from the link above, lots of claims, lots of nice functional block diagrams showing cameras, microprocessors, etc. The thing is, it describes devices that have been around for years. Camera phones, laptops, and more. The text of the patent offers absolutely nothing in terms of uniqueness, innovation or invention. Nothing. It’s all just a scam to squeeze money out of companies who have actually innovated. Here they’re going after Apple and the iPhone, Motorola and RIM (makers of the Blackberry). Why are they not going after Nokia and Ericsson? What about all the world’s laptop makers? They’ve been selling devices that do all these things much, much longer than Apple has…

It’s long past the time that we stamp out litigious patent trolls. There needs to be a in effect a Patent Death Penalty for this kind of crap. It wastes the time of the courts, it makes a mockery of the real hard work done by inventors who really do spend years working to create truly new and novel things — and it really and truly does stifle innovation by making people with ideas look over their shoulders and worry if their years of hard work will be brought down by a clever scam artist and their unethical patent attorneys who know how to game the system on their behalf.

The Penalties when people game(*) the patent system should be draconian:

1. The “inventors” should personally pay the litigation costs for all litigants affected by their bogus “patent.”
2. The “inventors” should be banned for life from filing any further patents or trademarks.
3. The Patent Attorneys assisting in the writing of the “patent(s)” and who filed the “patent(s)” should be fined $1,000,000 per false claim in the bogus “patent” and they should be disbarred in every state in which they have a law license.

This may seem like an outlandishly harsh punishment, but given the poisonous effects that these patent trolls and their (usually) bogus patents take on the ability to innovate, it barely scratches the surface in terms of undoing the damage that is done by each and every bogus patent.

It will just take 1 or 2 instances of this “Patent Death Penalty” before inventors will do their homework, and Patent Attorneys will give their clients solid advise about what is and isn’t patentable… especially if their law licenses are on the line.

*
…and by “game” I mean knowingly abusing the patent system by filing patents that are not valid and they have reason to know based on the existence of prior art or obviousness should not be granted, let alone even filed (as in the case of this patent — since every electronic mobile device such as a cell phone and laptop or PDA fits the basic description embodied in this patent).

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