Action Alert
Tell Congress: Don’t Do Patent Trolls’ Work For Them
It’s hard to believe, but a handful of U.S. Senators are pushing forward with two proposals that would empower patent trolls in a big way.
We need your help to tell Congress to stop working for patent trolls, and focus on the public good.
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The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), S. 2140, would throw out crucial rules that ban patents on many abstract ideas. Passing PERA would be an invitation to bring back some of the worst patents we’ve seen. If PERA passes, courts will be ordered to approve patents on things like ordering food on a mobile phone, or completing basic financial functions online. The floodgates will open for these vague software patents that will be used to sue small companies and individuals.
PERA even allows for a type of patent on human genes that the Supreme Court rightly disallowed in 2013.
A second bill, the PREVAIL Act, S. 2220, would sharply limit the public’s right to challenge patents that never should have been granted in the first place. The patent review process that Congress created in 2012 has kicked out thousands of bad patents, including the “podcasting” patent that EFF supporters raised money to fight off. If PREVAIL passes, EFF, other non-profits, and member-supported patent defense groups won’t be allowed to use the Patent Office’s main review system at all.
Bill sponsors are eager to move these bills forward and are pushing other Senators to support them. We must send a reminder: members of Congress were elected to work for the public, not patent trolls.
Yours,
Joe Mullin
EFF Activism Team
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