EFF Busts Yet Another Bogus Patent... But It's Taking A Long Time
Date : 01 03 2008 Category : Business
Techdirt
It's been three-and-a-half years since the EFF set up its patent busting project, where it lined up 10 awful patents with the hopes of getting them all rejected on review by the USPTO. The latest news is that the USPTO has now rejected all sixteen claims found in one of those patents, having to do with online test-taking. Yes, Test.com claimed that it was the first ever to think of online test taking back in 1999. Not surprisingly, the USPTO approved this patent on the first go-around, and it's only now that the review process has caused the patent to be rejected. Of course, Test.com could still respond and appeal, so this process is far from over.
While it's great to see the EFF busting patents, one of the things the EFF has really highlighted here is how incredibly difficult it is to bust bogus patents. We've had patent attorneys tell us that busting patents is easy, yet, here we are three-and-a-half years into the process and the EFF has only been able to get the USPTO to re-examine three of the ten patents. Even on this particular patent, the original re-exam was granted over a year-and-a-half ago, and the rejection has just come down. During all that time, Test.com was free to accuse anyone of violating its patent, potentially scaring off many companies (and universities) from being able to offer something as simple and obvious as online testing.
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While it's great to see the EFF busting patents, one of the things the EFF has really highlighted here is how incredibly difficult it is to bust bogus patents. We've had patent attorneys tell us that busting patents is easy, yet, here we are three-and-a-half years into the process and the EFF has only been able to get the USPTO to re-examine three of the ten patents. Even on this particular patent, the original re-exam was granted over a year-and-a-half ago, and the rejection has just come down. During all that time, Test.com was free to accuse anyone of violating its patent, potentially scaring off many companies (and universities) from being able to offer something as simple and obvious as online testing.
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