The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is proposing changes that would eliminate the ability for third parties to challenge junk patents — patents that are often used against open source, says Michael Dolan, senior vice president and general manager of projects at The Linux Foundation.
These rules “will help patent trolls, raise patent litigation expenses, and increase the volume of patent litigation overall,” says the Linux Foundation (LF), which has partnered with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, and others “to help developers and users of open source understand the risk these proposed changes carry.”
The USPTO invites public comment on these proposals, and the deadline for comments is June 20.
You can take action by submitting a written comment through the Federal Register. The LF has also provided templates (for Individuals and Corporate Counsel) to make it easy for you to comment and will host a June 7th webinar offering further discussion on the issue.
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