Tech patents – an arms race

Steve Hards

“The root of the problem is that America gives out patents like it’s a rubber stamping exercise. I mean they give these things away like toffee and it is crazy…The approach has been for many years to give away the patent and then leave the matter to litigation to resolve. Litigation decides not just whether a patent has been infringed, but whether the patent is valid in the first place, which is madness.” (Article (3 pages) in IT Pro quoting Struan Robertson, a technology lawyer.) The article illustrates the problem in reference to the household-name technology companies, but readers should be aware that the trend is also infecting the telecare/telehealth field, as with the extremely general Matsushita patent noted recently on Telecare Aware.