Knowledge Tariff in Asia – A Letter to Korea, Taiwan and Japan

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While we here at M·CAM often try to see the lighter side of intellectual property issues when we perform our Patently Obvious® analyses, when as much as twenty percent of an entire country’s GDP is being exploited, we take it very seriously. The tone of this Patently Obvious® report reflects that fact.

In their response to the NPR story, ‘When Patents Attack’, Intellectual Ventures’ executive team reiterated their conviction that they engage in a business that helps inventors benefit from their inventions – an unsubstantiated assertion given their incapacity to identify their own evidence. As we’ve shown in previous Patently Obvious® reports and in our Eastern District of Texas project , the patents asserted by IV are riddled with enforcement weaknesses. Were it not for the current blindness to the practice of patent law – both in the careless granting at the United States Patent & Trademark Office and in the review and enforcement in courts that have long abandoned the standard of evidencing ‘reduction to practice’ – the ‘inventions’ would be shown for the prosecutorial nonsense that they are. And while many patent attorneys will disparage the notion that they are complicit in the abuse of the patent system – both in prosecution and litigation strategy – there’s no question that the consumer and investor markets are in desperate need of a bit of patent education.

While we could address this letter to anyone of a number of damaged parties, we’ve decided to address our little missive to the governments of South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The reason is simple. They’ve been the target of abusive behavior and they have a mechanism to stop the abuse.

So, here goes.

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