Mission impossible: Bust bad patents
A recent rash of patent infringement lawsuits is calling into question the validity of many patents for widely used online technologies. If enforced, these patents will mean companies have to pay licensing fees for use of technology used in voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), online gaming, and even streaming media.
So far, all indications are that patent holders are all too eager to capitalize on their assets. Acacia recently sued 9 major broadcasting companies for roughly $100 million for illegal use of digital media transmission (streaming media), which the small research company claims to own rights to. Apparently, the tactic worked. Acacia now lists Walt Disney and Playboy as paying licensees of its technology.
Similar claims have caught the attention of digital civil liberties watchdog group the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In response to what the EFF calls outrageous patent claims, the group has issued a "most wanted" list of the ten most egregious patents claims.
Source Translation Optimization, has created a Web site detailing how the Patent and Trademark Office has come to allow so many unreasonable patents. And still another group, the Software Patent Institute is continually adding patents records to its online database to assist individual patent investigations.
In spite of these efforts, the chances of reversing bad patents are minimal. Of the nearly 7 million existing patents, 614 have been revoked, and only 3,927 have been narrowed in scope.
Jennifer Guevin is assistant managing editor of CNET News. She focuses on science and green tech. But she also makes the occasional contribution to CNET's kitchen gadgets blog or writes about the latest Web distraction. Once a week, she takes the mic as host of CNET's Daily News Podcast. E-mail Jennifer. 
