The Patent Busting Project is an
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) initiative challenging
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
s that the organization claims are illegitimate and suppress innovation or limit online expression. The initiative launched on April 19, 2004 and involves two phases: documenting the damage caused by these patents, and submitting challenges to the
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...
(USPTO).
The EFF's basic assumption is that many such patents are invalid due to
prior art
Prior art (also known as state of the art or background art) is a concept in patent law used to determine the patentability of an invention, in particular whether an invention meets the novelty and the inventive step or non-obviousness criteria ...
which has historically been difficult to document in software and internet fields. (Many patent owners file patents to cover seemingly trivial concepts without any intention of enforcing the patents, but rather to use as part of a larger
patent portfolio A patent portfolio is a collection of patents owned by a single entity, such as an individual or corporation. The patents may be related or unrelated. Patent applications may also be regarded as included in a patent portfolio.
The monetary benefit ...
in their own defense against potential future patent lawsuits.)
Status
The effort began with a "patent busting contest" where the public was encouraged to submit proposals of the worst offenders. Of these, EFF chose the top "10 Most Wanted" list of patents based on patent viability, whether the patent owners intend to enforce these patents, and how much of a threat they are to potential
infringers.
By April 29, 2006, EFF had announced formal challenges to two of the listed patents: Test.com's patent on administering online tests, and
Clear Channel's patent on recording and distributing CDs of live shows.
On October 23, 2007 The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the EFF's request for the reexamination of NeoMedia's patent #6,199,048. The Office also granted request for the reexamination of Hoshiko's (Ideaflood) patent #6,687,746 that covers the automation of
subdomain registration.
On February 4, 2009, The United States Patent and Trademark Office upheld NeoMedia patent #6,199,048, although with limitations imposed upon the claimed material.
Ten Most-wanted Patents
*
Acacia Research
Acacia Research Corporation is an American company based in New York City. Acacia partners with patent owners such as inventors and universities to license patents that are infringed. Roughly 95% of the company's business involves licensing i ...
: Audio and video receiving and transmission system
*
Clear Channel Entertainment
Live Nation was a former American events promoter and venue operator based in Beverly Hills, California. Founded in 1996 by Robert F. X. Sillerman as SFX Entertainment, the company's business was built around consolidating concert promoters int ...
: System and method of creating digital recordings of live performances
*Acceris: Method and apparatus for implementing a computer network/internet telephone system
*Sheldon F. Goldberg: System and method for playing games on a network
*Ideaflood: System apparatus and method for hosting and assigning domain names on a wide area network
*Neomedia Technologies: System and method for automatic access of a remote computer over a network
*Test.com: Method for administering tests, lessons, assessments
*
Nintendo: Software implementation of a handheld videogame hardware platform
*Firepond: System that uses natural language processing to respond to customers' online inquiries by email
*
Seer Systems
__NOTOC__
Seer Systems developed the world's first commercial software synthesizer in the early 1990s. Working in conjunction with Intel, then Creative Labs, and finally as an independent software developer and retailer, Seer helped lay the ground ...
: System and method for generating, distributing, storing and performing musical work files
Fate
EFF lists Acacia Research and Firepond's patents as having been made invalid, Ideaflood and Clear Channel's as "busted", NeoMedia and Seer Systems' have been "narrowed", Acceris, Test.com and Sheldon F. Goldberg's have "Reexam granted". Only Nintendo's patent of the original ten has no status update, but more are listed.
References
{{reflist
External links
EFF Patent Busting Project pageEFF Patents Home
Intellectual property activism
Patent law
Politics and technology
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Organizations established in 2004
2004 establishments in the United States