Funded by the public, but using patents to sue the public

Reference: State university system

Summary: The latest example/s of state universities that are suing the public (or private corporations) that helped fund these universities, having already wasted public funds on pursuing patent monopolies

THE US patent system is gradually repelling if not altogether driving away patent trolls. In the coming weeks we are going to show plenty of evidence, accumulated during May and June when we were busy covering European affairs.

One of the most obtuse examples of patent trolling is taxpayers-funded trolling, such as the NSA or NASA angle which we covered the other day. NASA, which is funded by the public, was literally offering patents to patent trolls [1, 2]. As for the NSA, it's pursing "licensing" -- presumably for surveillance that's harming the very public which funds the NSA.

What about universities?

"As for the NSA, it's pursing "licensing" -- presumably for surveillance that's harming the very public which funds the NSA."Well, the University of Florida Research Foundation (UFRF) was mentioned here before in relation to patent aggression and yesterday IAM revealed that it wants immunity from challenge (at PTAB) -- a subject that Patently-O explored several times earlier this summer. If a patent troll this large can incredibly enough claim immunity and rake in public subsidies, what public service does it serve really?

Think about it.

Might as well shut it down or 'euthanise' it.

Sites like IAM and the likes of them would resort to propaganda terms like "intellectual property" and then leverage words like "protecting" "property" from "stealing", but the reality of the matter is that the only stealing here might be stealing of funds from the public.

"So universities, rather than being a pool of public knowledge, have simply become aggressors that can sue private companies at any time."Well, we have many articles about patent trolls on the way this summer, but this one is unique because a US university is the plaintiff.

In the United States, with its increasingly-privatised universities (passing the Commons to private hands for personal gain), the universities become like patent trolls (paid by taxpayers still) and this is a subject we have been exploring a lot over the years. Sometimes the patents get sold wholesale to patent trolls such as Intellectual Ventures. Recently, another such article emerged, this time in Bloomberg. It was titled "PATENT-HEAVY SCHOOLS LOOK TO COURTS FOR IP PAYDAYS" and it said this:

If the Regents of the University of California and the California Institute of Technology see big paydays in their fight against tech bigwigs, could that further fuel the university patent boom?

A Bloomberg Law analysis of patent infringement lawsuits involving the top five universities that were granted U.S. patents last year offers insight into higher education's courtroom battles against high tech in order to secure damages.

So universities, rather than being a pool of public knowledge, have simply become aggressors that can sue private companies at any time. Does that make sense to anyone? ⬆