Googleis patent chief thinks the system is in crisis. Appleis patent chief didnit quite go that far, according to Colette Vogele of the Stanford Law School on Wednesday.
Speaking at the annual Stanford Summit in the Bay Area, Michelle Lee, Googleis associate patent counsel told the attendees that the U.S. patent system is "in crisis", "over burdend" and that the "quality of patents coming out is low."
In addition, she lamented the "patent trolls," companies that develop a portfolio of patents and use it as a money making weapon. She referred to the US$612M that was extracted from Research in Motion in May.
However, Appleis chief patent counsel, Chip Lutton, contradicted Ms. Lee, and doesnit think the patent system is broken. In fact, "itis the best system in the world," he said. Mr. Lutton said that the key is fixing the patent system is to focus on the narrower, valuable patents. Fixing those will solve most of the problems, he claimed. He also said that the key to fixing the problem lies in the courts.
David Kappos, V.P. and assistant counsel for IP at IBM generally agreed but pointed out that itis a matter of perspective. Pharma companies that own patents in the U.S. like the system, however, IT managers view the system as having problems.
Apple lost a major lawsuit to Microsoft related to the graphical user interface copyrights in the 1990s. Like most companies including IBM, Apple has been forced to turn to the patent system to protect its IP. Now that the patent system is serving the industry in many respects, itis unlikely many companies will want to abandon it. Thatis likely why Mr. Lutton would like to see a better handling of patent trolling by the courts.