[governance] Obama Takes Swipe At Patent Trolls In Call For Further Reform

[Riaz K Tayob]

Meanwhile low patent quality persists.... and New Zeelanders would know 
about honest brokering on these issues...


    Obama Takes Swipe At Patent Trolls In Call For Further Reform

Published on 15 February 2013 @ 11:43 pm

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<http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/02/15/obama-takes-swipe-at-patent-trolls-in-call-for-further-reform/print/> 


By Kelly Burke <http://www.ip-watch.org/author/kburke/> for Intellectual 
Property Watch

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.

"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.

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."

"Our efforts at patent reform only went halfway to the point where they 
need to go," he said.

President Obama closed out the topic by advocating for a balance between 
protection and internet freedom.

"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. *"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."*

Watch the full video here. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp_zigxMS-Y>

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