Our right to challenge junk patents is under threat
I work for EFF and wrote the text of this blog post and action. On here I speak only for myself, but a couple points I want to add.<p>1) EFF has only filed one IPR ever, (linked in the post), against Personal Audio, to invalidate a patent asserted against podcasting. This was crowd-funded by hundreds of people. It required years of litigation beyond the IPR process itself.<p>2) Patent challenges should be open to all. There&#x27;s nothing wrong with a &quot;for profit&quot; org challenging a government monopoly - it&#x27;s a public benefit. A good patent will often hold up (many do), a wrongly granted one will usually go down.<p>Please read the examples in the post of (very) small businesses, individuals, and nonprofits (Wikimedia) who were protected because <i>another</i> organization, often a for-profit, filed a successful IPR.<p>It&#x27;s truly upside down world  when USPTO is concerned its very limited monopoly-challenging services are being overused by &quot;for-profits&quot; that file &quot;serial&quot; petitions. In my career I have analyzed hundreds of shell companies that have (each!) sent out dozens or hundreds of threat letters and lawsuits demanding patent royalty payments (patent trolls). Guess what? They&#x27;re ALL for-profit. They ALL file serial petitions with the hopes of a fast payout.<p>We have limited means to challenge this extortionate business model, and now USPTO is trying to drastically limit one of the best options. I hope they reconsider, and we ask for your support.<p>Thanks to all and I appreciate the discussion here.