Patents as a tool that protects the ’small inventor’ may be a Big Myth. They only protect monopolies and feed patent trolls that are not the ’small inventor’ but are rather the ‘vicious lawyer’.

Reform is ahead, Microsoft plays mental games against Linux, Microsoft-affiliated patent harvesters revisited and studied

Google's head of patents believes the U.S. patent system is "in crisis". Discussing patent reform at the annual Stanford Summit in Northern California, associate general counsel Michelle Lee told conference attendees that the American system is "out-of-balance [and] needs to be remedied".

Red Hat and Novell stood up to a patent bully and got a favorable jury verdict in the IPI trial which invalidated some software patents that should never have been issued. It's hard to see how that's not a good thing for open source. It's also good that the particular battle has inspired discussion of the need for fundamental reform of the U.S. patent system.

OIN scoops up Microsoft patents that were put up for grabs (potentially by patent trolls); similarity to Intellectual Ventures seen

Under new leadership, the US Patent and Trademark Office has begun to publish data on how long does it really takes to get a final answer on whether you will receive a patent. Answer, six years. The backlog of patents is almost 730 000.

Perhaps this will be the beginning of a patents reform?

Familiar patent trolls, including Ray Niro and Acacia, make another appearance

Another discussion about the economic viability of patents, the patent trolls, and OIN's ineffective solution

Rambus antitrust comes to the Supreme Court; Bilski strikes again; isolated hardware patents news; trolls attack