If you are one of our nations best and brightest, you could study engineering and contribute value to our society in your creations. You could also become an attorney and defend the property of the engineer from those who willfully steal the innovations. Either of these could reward years of hard work with great wealth and recognition. A third course is to invent nothing, defend nothing tangible and take advantage of an outdated patent system by running an intellectual property protection racket. Unfortunately the third course has proven to be a quick path to easy money, creating a growth industry that is nothing more than a hungry parasite.
While the new wave of LTE lawsuits couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of companies, the lawsuits are probably no more valid than the suits that have harassed WiFi and WiMAX. Congress should reform the patent act and discourage baseless litigation. Unfortunately, the political party of the trial lawyer is poised to take control of our government for at least the next two years. Seems we’ll be seeing more of this instead of less.
Name the standard, and we can probably find someone claiming patents on it. There are still ongoing patent battles surrounding both WiFi and WiMax. The latest is apparently surrounding LTE, the choice of many mobile providers for their 4G next generation wireless. A company named ADC is claiming that LTE violates its patents and is now asking for royalties. (Techdirt)
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