Earlier this week, Public Knowledge announced that we have
hired Charles Duan to head up our new Patent Reform Project. Charles is a computer scientist and former patent litigator who is
currently working with my colleagues at the University of Colorado Law School analyzing next-generation Internet technologies and their impact on privacy, intellectual property and communications law. He’ll be starting full time this summer and
we’re excited to get started.
It should come as no surprise that Public Knowledge is starting this new
project. Our mission is to ensure an
open communications system that promotes creativity, innovation and freedom of
expression. Unfortunately, the current patent system is
having the opposite effect. There are
many reasons for this, and they are well documented. They include, for example, the grant of poor
quality patents; abuses in the volume of claims and continuations; the
rise of “non-practicing entities,” or patent “trolls”; and damage awards that far exceed the value of the patented invention. Even
though Congress passed a patent reform bill in 2010 – the “America Invents
Act” – the problems with our patent system seem to be increasing, not
decreasing.
PK will be working on patent policy in much the same way it works
on copyright and telecom policy. We’ll
be working with other stakeholders to make the case for further patent
reform. We’ll be advocating in
Congress, at the Patent and Trademark Office, at the White House, in the courts and
elsewhere. We’ll be commissioning
research and developing simple messages to engage the press and the
public in the debate. We realize that
patent policy is complex, technical and difficult to understand. The good news is that 18 months ago, you
could have said the same about copyright. We want to demonstrate simply how patents affect
people’s everyday lives. We believe
that this will motivate people to tell policymakers that it is time to make
serious systemic changes to the way patents are granted and litigated.
So stay tuned over the coming months as we roll out this
very exciting new project!