The Patent Wars
By Brian | July 26, 2011 at 5:37 PM | Comment
I began working in litigation graphics in 1998. We did all the standard stuff: medical malpractice, contract disputes, employment issues, environmental problems, construction, intellectual property—a little bit of everything. In 2002/2003, I started working on my first software patent infringement case, Kodak vs. Sun.
It was the first time I’d worked on a technical tutorial, the first time I remember working on a Markman hearing. We worked on the case for around two years, and in the end, our client, Kodak, won. I didn’t really understand the significance of what was going on at the time, but it’s clear now that this was part of the early stage of what could be called the software patent wars.
Not long after that case concluded, I left litigation graphics for awhile. When I returned it was 2007, and patent infringement, the majority of it software patents, had exploded. The Patent Wars were escalating.
This week’s episode of This American Life, called, “When Patents Attack!” attempts to illuminate the controversial issue of software patent litigation, interviewing software engineers, patent holders and attorneys. They travel to the Baxter Building in Marshall, Texas to the “corridor of silent, empty offices” where many patent holders have offices but no employees. They talk to the person who coined the term “patent troll” while working at Intel, who now works for what one interviewee calls, “a troll on steroids.” It’s an entertaining hour and gives a nice overview of how this started and where it might be leading.
As a companion piece, you might also watch “Patent Absurdity: How Software Patents Broke the System,” which offers a more slanted view of the problem, but also offers some possible ways out.
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