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Meanwhile low patent quality persists.... and New Zeelanders would
know about honest brokering on these issues... <br>
<h2 class="posttitle"> Obama Takes Swipe At Patent Trolls In Call
For Further Reform </h2>
<small>Published on 15 February 2013 @ 11:43 pm</small>
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<p>By <a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/author/kburke/" title="Posts
by Kelly Burke" rel="author">Kelly Burke</a> for Intellectual
Property Watch</p>
<p>US President Obama took aim yesterday at so-called patent trolls
and said that further US patent reform is needed. He also called
for a continued focus on protection of IP rights, but signalled a
need for balance with openness. <span id="more-26723"></span></p>
<p>“They don’t actually produce anything themselves,” President
Obama said when asked about problem of “patent trolls,” which are
also referred to as non-practicing patent-holding entities. ”They
are essentially trying to leverage and hijack somebody else’s idea
and see if they can extort some money out of them.” Some have
raised questions about the basis for criticism of non-practising
entities.</p>
<p>President Obama, during a virtual Google+ fireside “hangout”,
fielded questions on a variety of topics before turning his
attention to intellectual property policies affecting the US. He
praised his administration’s progress in ongoing patent reform but
noted legislative shortcomings, saying “it hasn’t captured all the
problems.”</p>
<p>“Our efforts at patent reform only went halfway to the point
where they need to go,” he said.</p>
<p>President Obama closed out the topic by advocating for a balance
between protection and internet freedom.</p>
<p>“I’m an ardent believer that what’s powerful about the internet
is its openness and its capacity for people to get out there and
introduce a new idea with low barriers to entry,” he said. <b>“We
also want to make sure that people’s intellectual property is
protected and whether it’s how we’re dealing with copyright, how
we’re dealing with patents, how we’re dealing with piracy
issues. What we’ve tried to do is be an honest broker between
the various stakeholders and to continue to refine it, hopefully
keeping up with the technology, which doesn’t mean that there
aren’t occasionally going to be some problems that we still
haven’t identified and have to keep on working on.”</b></p>
<p>Watch the full video <a title="Obama Fireside Google+ Chat"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp_zigxMS-Y"
target="_blank" data-mce-="">here.</a><br>
<br>
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