THE previous post dealt with the EPO's promotion of software patents in Europe under the guise of or by misusing new buzzwords. There's a growing threat -- and already a reality in Germany -- that patent trolls will thrive in Europe. Sites like IAM work hard towards that and a couple of days ago IAM's latest recruit wrote that the Dutch "Health Minister has hit out at “absurd” drug prices, suggesting that the use of compulsory patent licensing might be one solution. This comes shortly after Germany’s highest court upheld a landmark decision forcing a life sciences innovator to license a key patent to a competitor."

"There's also a profound controversy over universities (which receive public funds) spending time and money pursuing patents that are then give to notorious trolls such as Intellectual Ventures."In the area of life sciences there are many ethical/moral issues associated with patents; it's not just about advancement and prosperity but life and death. There's also a profound controversy over universities (which receive public funds) spending time and money pursuing patents that are then give to notorious trolls such as Intellectual Ventures. IAM has just published this sponsored piece that whitewashes the practice.

Here in Europe we already have some patent trolls like Avanci, which is a patent troll that preys on carmakers. Having recently groomed this troll, IAM has just done another puff piece for it. "Avanci," it wrote, "the platform headed by former Ericsson CIPO Kasim Alfalahi focused on licensing wireless technology into different verticals in the Internet of Things (IoT), has published its royalty rates for car companies."

"Ericsson has already birthed some patent trolls other than Avanci and they 'operate' (i.e. sue) in Europe, even in London."Here's that buzzword again, "IoT". We wrote about it a moment ago. It just alludes to any device with a TCP/IP stack on it, i.e. nothing new. And guess what the troll is after. It's 'protection' money. Ericsson has already birthed some patent trolls other than Avanci and they 'operate' (i.e. sue) in Europe, even in London.

Last but not least/latest from IAM is this puff piece regarding AST, which is feeding patent trolls. It's not the first such puff piece. In IAM's own words: "In October we ran a story following a comment from AST’s CEO Russell Binns that the patent market was due to see 30,000 assets for sale in 2017. “It seems like everyone is trying to clear house at the same time,” he commented at that time."

And pass patents to trolls, just like Ericsson has been doing. ⬆