From: Mike Linksvayer (ml@justintime.com)
Date: Wed Jan 26 2000 - 12:48:00 MST
hal@finney.org wrote:
> What is he referring to here regarding statistics? Is it the case that
> most patent suits against software patents go against the patent holder?
> Or a substantial percentage?
I asked him (Gregory Aharonian) what invalidity statistics he
was referring to and whether he had any statistics on the
outcomes of patent challenges. His response (a copy of his
newsletter dated 19981018, I'll forward to anyone interested)
doesn't really address the questions. His most significant points,
as I understand them:
* Without a corresponding increase in resources the PTO has
increased the number of software patents issued per year by
more than 17x (~1300 in 1990, ~22500 in 1999, increasing every
year) in the past 10 years.
* 80% of software patents cite "insufficient" non-patent prior
art (over 50% cite none).
There's more circumstantial evidence in his newsletter that
lots of "invalid" patents are being issued, but none indicating
that one could find and litigate these patents with a high
probability of success.
He now has a list of some software patents that were declared
invalid by the PTO or courts or withdrawn at
<http://www.bustpatents.com/invalid.htm>.
Mike Linksvayer
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