Comment by VanL | Hacker News Reader

Comment by VanL | Hacker News Reader

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No one gave up. There was a "pencils down" compromise agreement between most parties as of yesterday. It was hard getting there, but it had support from almost everyone.

The pulled bill was the result of two different forces coming into play: Pro-IP monetization companies applying pressure and coalition splitting among the Democratic caucus.

The IP Monetization folks (Trolls, Universities, Bio, PHrMA, old line industry, and folks like Qualcomm) have been pushing really hard to weaken the legislation. There were substantial efforts to come to reasonable compromises, but those groups were never really happy.

What ultimately killed it, though, is that there were some important special interest groups (notably the trial lawyers) who opposed any kind of reform. If the bill would have been brought to the floor, it would have split the Democratic coalition and made a bunch of big-money donors mad.

When the opposition from the IP Monetization group mixed with the destabilizing political effect, the Senate Democratic leadership decided to kill it.

> Trolls, Universities, Bio, PHrMA, old line industry, and folks like Qualcomm)

That encompasses like 90% of the broader tech/engineering/R&D sector. If so much of the sector opposes reform, then reform won't be possible without getting more of these folks to switch sides. I think sensible reform is possible without prejudicing the interests of most of those folks. Its a matter of conveying that to them.

The anti-reform group is basically people who make a living licensing patents. Everyone else (Google, Cisco, Amazon... pretty much anyone doing anything over the internet, anyone using computers or networks, all three auto makers, the app developers, anyone in phones) mostly was pro reform.

What made the coalition for reform though, was the non tech industry. Retail, the Chamber of Commerce, banks, grocers, restauranteurs, hoteliers, gaming, insurance, venture capital... Basically everyone else. The pro-reform group was called the big tent for a reason.

This was about a smallish number of companies wanting to extract profits from other companies, and using the brokenness of the patent system to do so.

No one would have objected of there was a sense that the allegations were fair or well-founded. The problem is that courts would by statute try to uphold claims that were ridiculous.

Patent suits are the spam of the court system - spam you have to pay to delete.

The Partnership for American Innovation, which is basically an anti-reform group, includes Apple, Microsoft, IBM, DuPont, Pfizer, GE, and Ford. These are old-line American engineering companies, and make a living selling products, not licensing patents. They're synonymous with innovation (and STEM job creation) to your average Congresscritter. Reform is going to be difficult without getting more of these sorts of companies on the other side. The computer/internet folks have a very legitimate platform, but the coalition is too thin.

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