[Discuss] The America Invents Act

[Rich Braun]

On 9/27/2011 3:55 PM, Hsuan-Yeh Chang wrote:
> I don't understand how "first to invent" favors entrepreneurs, while
> "first to file" favors trolls.

Taking this thread back around to my original assertion, that this new law is
likely to chill open-source development:  the whole point of open-source is to
provide a public forum for creation of what lawyers call "prior art".

I suppose Github or SourceForge or even the BLU could create a legal service
attached to an open-source site to seek out or otherwise accept patentable
ideas for submission to the U.S. Patent Office before the
intellectual-property divisions at big companies (or what Hsuan-Yeh calls
"troll" firms, teams of lawyers conceived in the model of the early days of
MCI or the end days of SCO).  But where would the cash flow come from to
support this?

I don't think the average Congressmen took into account the whole
Gnu/Linux/Github/SourceForge ecosystem which has driven so much prosperity
over the past 20 years.  I think 2012 is going to be the last year of it,
unless the America Invents Act is substantially repealed.  The Act's
provisions came about as a fight between rival factions of large corporate
patent-portfolio holders, and although it tossed a few well-picked bones out
to small startups, it really does not seem to have much for us open-source
advocates to be overjoyed about.

Dead.  Open Source.  How discouraging!  Maybe I /will/ have to take Stallman's
suggestion to pay my LPF dues...

-rich