Do patents stifle innovation?

Hello, I’m parenthetically Andrew Heaton

and you’re watching Mostly Weekly.

And today we’re going to talk about patent trolls.

They’re like regular trolls, only balder, paler,

and prone to lawsuits.

Patents are the legal equivalent of dibs.

Or a temporary monopoly that the government awards to inventors,

so that after they’ve developed a new technology they’re rewarded for their efforts.

But patent trolls are gaming the system,

to the point that the patent system is holding back innovation instead of encouraging it.

Patent trolls buy or register stupid or vague patents.

Then when someone invents something awesome

they claim the inventor is using their patent, and they sue.

That creates a minefield where inventors are afraid to create things

for fear they’ll step on a patent and blow their legs off.

Trolls cost US firms twenty-nine billion dollars in lawsuits every year.

And the threat of lawsuits strangles startups and hampers innovation.

Like this, or this, or this, it's good for father's day.

Or this, that's a good valentine's day present.

Or this, Christmas?

To be awarded a patent, an inventor is supposed to create a new idea

which is novel and not just an obvious improvement over an existing idea.

Like this!

The US Patent Office doesn’t nitpick every moron’s application,

so patent trolls file broad, vague, and weak applications

that they can use as flimsy pretenses to lob lawsuits at people.

For example, this is an actual patent:

it's patented as “thermal refreshening of a bread product.”

Oh! You mean toast?

You can’t patent, friggin, toast!

Or this!

"Method of concealing partial baldness.”

That’s a combover!

You didn’t invent combovers!

If you think toast and combovers are overly broad,

you’re right, you score a point-

which is also a patent!

Apple and Samsung had a patent dispute

over who owned rectangles with rounded edges.

Quit fighting about quadrilaterals!

Just build me a robot butler already!

For years, trolls filed their frivolous lawsuits in East Texas.

Partly because East Texas was more friendly to patent lawsuits,

and also because it’s irritating to have to fly to East Texas.

So defendants, much like a substitute teacher in her late thirties,

are inclined to settle--

which is exactly what the trolls want.

In the recent case of TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods

the Supreme Court ruled that patent lawsuits must be filed wherever the defendant is

Which is a big blow to patent trolls.

Meanwhile, other patent troll victims have started fighting back.

Personal Audio LLC sued Adam Corolla for podcasting,

which they claimed to own the patent for.

Rather than ponying up extortion money,

Corolla raised half a million dollars through podcasting

and threw in another 200,000 of his own to fight them in court.

We don’t know what the settlement was,

but I imagine they didn't make very much money,

and they’ll probably think twice about trying to extort the podcast community again.

Which means I can now fearlessly release my pogcast.

Which is a podcast about pogs!

Hey, remember pogs?

Finally, a guy named Alexander Reben

developed an algorithm that spits out tens of thousands of invention ideas every day.

If a troll patents something in the future and sues someone,

the defendant can point to the millions and millions of Reben's ideas that predate it.

And some of those ideas are brilliant.

Like: “a shoe tree for one shoe”

and a pineapple lily plant that can track people.

That's innovation!

Trolls are on the run, but there’s a major step we can do take to hobble them.

What do trolls fear most?

Commitment.

Obviously, everyone knows that.

But after that, “fee shifting.”

Fee shifting means whoever loses the court case pays for all of the legal fees.

It’s what they do in Canada and Britain,

although we only do it for exceptional cases in the United States.

If you knew you’d have to pay yours and the defendant's fees

if you lost a frivolous patent case,

you’d be less likely to register it in the first place.

On my end, I'm going to file a patent for “being an extortionist dickhead”

so I can sue the pants off some patent trolls.

And that'll show them how the-

And apparently the patent for ironic patents has already been patented so that's great.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a court date.

But not for patent violations.

For murder.