‘http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/02/15/asserting-patent-rights-u-s/id=93803/
‘claw their way back to the district court’
We agree. Any law which denies our right to a trial by jury, or appreciably diminishes that right must be struck. These post issue proceedings can cost us upwards of $1M. We don’t have the cash so we end up defenseless and lose by default. That quickly we have lost our invention we have invested all in and so many years of our lives.
So that’s justice?? The unfairness is mind numbing. That in large measure explains why inventors now only succeed through appeal 3% of the time. Why on earth would anyone invest their life savings and family’s future in such a lottery ticket? Even on the rare occasion when we do win the CAFC shreds our damages -we rarely if ever are awarded more than $5M even though the benefit to infringers (thieves) is substantially more, or even enormously. So in America, crime does pay. And because we can no longer get injunctions thanks to the SCOTUS eBay decision, crime keeps on paying and paying and paying…
One inventor while asserting a patent against large infringers ended up in one such proceeding. Lacking any alternative he defended pro se and after a more than one year struggle lost the patent he had worked for over 10 years to obtain. In an interview at the PTO for that proceeding as he signed in at the desk there was another party in a separate proceeding who had at least 5 attorneys representing them. So much for a level playing field. This is America??
For inventors the American patent system is largely rubble. We can’t get patents and when we surprisingly do we can’t keep or enforce them. For us the patent system is a sport of thieves, allowing our large competitors to rob and crush us.
For our position and the changes we advocate (the rest of the truth) to restore the patent system, or to join our effort, please visit us at https://aminventorsforjustice.wordpress.com/category/our-position/
or, contact us at aifj@mail.com
American Inventors for Justice 