By Jason Rantanen
Last week, Director of the USPTO David Kappos delivered a keynote address to the Center for American Progress that focused on software patents and the smartphone "patent wars."? The speech is noteworthy for the Director's strong defense of software patents. The entire speech is worth reading - here are a few excerpts to induce you to read the full speech:
Software patents, like all patents, are a form of innovation currency. They are also ecosystem enablers, and job creators. The innovation protected by software patents is highly integrated with hardware. All of it must remain eligible for protection. The current software patent ?war? is hardly the first patent war?and unlikely to be the last in our nation?s patent history. Whenever breakthrough technologies come onto the scene, market players find themselves joined in the marketplace by new entrants. The first instinct of the breakthrough innovators is to bring patents into play. This is not only understandable, it is appropriate. Those who invest in breakthrough innovation have a right to expect others to respect their resultant IP. However, in the end, as history has shown time and time again, the players ultimately end up agreeing to pro-consumer solutions via licenses, cross-licenses or joint development agreements allowing core technologies to be shared.
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So does that mean we?re done? End of speech? Should we just accept the problems, given the importance of the innovation and the illogic of discriminating against great technology that happens to be implemented in software? Of course not. The right point of inquiry is quality. By getting that right, we grant patents only for great algorithmic ideas worthy of protection, and not for everything else. This administration and its innovation agency understand that low-quality patents do no good for anyone. Low quality patents lead to disputes, uncertainty, and lost opportunity. Quality is central to our mission. All of this especially for software.
So we?ve been working on the underlying drivers for software patent quality from the beginning. Knowing that you get what you measure, starting in the summer of 2009 we assembled a taskforce to devise a comprehensive new set of quality metrics. That work culminated in 2010, when we rolled out the most complete, broad, objective patent quality measurement system on the planet ? seven metrics, which we report eagerly to the public. The Lexus of quality metrics. And what do those metrics show? Patent quality isn?t broken at all. In fact, our decisions on both allowances and rejections correctly comply with all laws and regulations over 96 percent of the time.
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You know, the history of software patents is not a perfect one, although things are improving. Some of the most troublesome patents have expired; others can be challenged with new post-grant proceedings; and newer patents are quantifiably clearer, and aligned with current legal standards. But it?s important to note that, during the so-called smartphone patent wars, innovation continues at breakneck pace. A system like ours, in which innovation is happening faster than consumers can keep up, cannot fairly be characterized as ?broken?. Nor can it be said that the U.S. is just a receiver of all this innovation. Most of the innovation is taking place right here. Broken? What?
The fact is, the explosion of innovation?and follow-on litigation?that we see across consumer electronics hardware and software is a direct reflection of how our patent system wires us for innovation. It's both natural and reasonable that in a fast-growing, competitive market, innovators would seek to protect their breakthroughs using our patent system.
The full version of Director Kappos's speech is available here: http://www.uspto.gov/news/speeches/2012/kappos_CAP.jsp
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