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Sunday, November 05, 2006

U.S. Computer & Communications Industry Association on Patent Reform.

On November 01, 2006, the

Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has

hosted a briefing seminar on Capitol Hill and released a new

report on the current patent crisis and how to reform the system authored by

Mr. Brian Kahin, Senior Fellow at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, where he advises on issues in standards and patent policy. He is also Adjunct Professor and Research Investigator at the University of Michigan School of Information, where he recently directed a

project on Patents and Diversity in Innovation. He was previously founding director of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project, General Counsel for the Interactive Multimedia Association, and Senior Policy Analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (1997-2000). He has edited ten books on the Internet and the digital economy.

"[...] 'Patent reform has been paralyzed by deep divisions in perspective between pharmaceutical interests and IT,' said Kahin, 'but in reality the reforms on the table are targeted at symptoms rather than underlying structural problems. The system is broken, because it is currently subsidizing pharmaceuticals at the expense of IT, especially software.' Among other things, the report advocates raising the threshold standard of patentability so that it is no longer judged by the person of 'ordinary' skill, a standard ill-suited to today's innovation-driven economy. [...]"

The

core proposals are as follows:

Tailor patent protection to reflect the diversity of innovation environments.
Raise the basic threshold: eliminate the "ordinary" from patent law.
Implement peer review for patent applications.
Reward submissions of prior art that invalidate defective patents.
Require registration of notice letters that assert infringement.
Condition full fee-funding on PTO accountability.
Put PTO at the forefront of knowledge management and information science.
Stop the ambush of openly developed standards.
Re-engineer patent institutions to promote innovation, preclude capture, and reduce costs.

Mr. Kahin appears to be Member of the Advisory Board of the

FFII e.V. along with

Mr. Lenz,

Mr. Winischhofer and

Mr. Halbersztadt, at least as

this document and

this website dated 2005 suggest.

However, surely Mr. Kahin should not blindly be identified with FFII policy. His recent proposals appear to be moderate and well worth to be considered carefully. At least Mr. Kahin is miles away from any

patent abolitionist activities as provided by Mr. Pilch, Vice-President of FFII.

And, it appears as if Mr. Pieter Hintjens, President FFII, went one more step ahead on November 02, 2006, by

registering a domain

EPOMUSTGO.ORG apparently

dedicated to promote dissolution of the European Patent Office (EPO).

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