p2pnet.net News:- The EFF wants you to identify bad patents for its patent busting contest.

Some dodgy patents are having negative effects on Internet innovation and free expression, says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), so now it’s looking for 10 such to challenge.

"As part of EFF’s Patent Busting Project, EFF seeks nominations for the ten worst offenders in the world of intellectual property," it says.

Winners will become, "the first targets for the project’s team of attorneys, technologists and experts, who will file ‘re-examination’ requests with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), asking the agency to revoke the patents."

"We have seen illegitimate patents asserted on such simple technologies as one-click online shopping, video streaming, and paying with credit cards online," says staff attorney Jason Schultz, who’s running things.

"When individuals and small businesses are faced with million-dollar legal demands, they have no choice but to capitulate and pay license fees. We aim to change that."

To qualify, a bad patent has to be more than just stupid and invalid. It must be issued in the United States and be software or Internet-related.

Most important, the patent owner must be actively threatening or suing people for licensing fees.

The judges are also particularly interested in patents for technologies that enable free expression, such as streaming video, blogging tools, and voice over IP (VoIP).

The contest opens today and closes on June 23. Winners will be announced on June 30.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2004 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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