Patent reform and technology
Dallas Maverick owner and the owner of various technology companies, Mark Cuban has long advocated for innovation. He has railed against various threats to technology and innovation and has a keen eye for politics. Cuban recently aired his belief that if patent laws changed, more jobs would be created.
Cuban said, “Sometimes it’s not the obvious things that create the biggest problems. In this case one of the hidden job killers in our economy today is the explosion of patent litigation.”
“I’m not talking about a new company that had an idea that someone beat us to,” Cuban said. “No sir. I’m talking about companies that have been doing business the same way for years that are getting hit by patent trolls . These aren’t operating companies that are trying to protect their business. These are companies that aggregate patents and raise capital for the sole purpose of suing companies and extorting money from them.”
Real estate technology patent lawsuits
We have railed against patent trolling for some time as an impediment to innovation, even in the real estate industry. Real estate search involving a map and mobile real estate search are both concepts that companies claim they have a patent on. Therefore, in theory, no one can offer either on their website or through their brokerage unless using their service.
The most recent patent lawsuit in real estate is CIVIX vs. Trulia on the heels of CIVIX settling with MLSs across America for use of CIVIX’ patent on “systems and methods for remotely accessing a selected group of items from a database” (aka web search relying on geo-location).
Patent reform legal update
Senior Technology Policy Representative at the National Association of Realtors and AGBeat columnist, Melanie Wyne said,”A quick legislative update on patent reform. The House and Senate have both passed slightly different patent reform bills. The Senate is signalling that it will consider the House version shortly after it returns from recess in September. If the Senate passes the bill, the President has indicated he will sign it and we will have the first reforms to the U.S. patent system in over 50 years. There are provisions in the legislation that will help to reduce the burden of litigation and allow a non-judicial process for challenging questionable patents.”
