While much of the recent antitrust scrutiny of Big Tech companies has focused on their abuse of market dominant positions in areas of pricing, search, advertising and publishing, there is another important area where these companies have been abusing their positions to squash competition: patents. For years now, Big Tech companies have successfully advocated for and taken advantage of weakened patent protections in the United States to infringe on the patents of smaller inventors with impunity.

Last month, a bipartisan group of U. S.

By now you know that a strong patent system helps protect American inventors by ensuring that their intellectual property is not easily stolen or knocked off by foreign competitors. However, what you may not know is that the implications of protecting patents goes beyond the livelihood of the inventor; it affects the U.

Why is the United States patent system important? This question has a number of possible answers, and it is a question that we at Save The Inventor have been actively trying to address. Recently the Intellectual Property Owners Association posed this same inquiry to our nation’s youth by asking them to create a video showcasing their understanding of the importance of the patent system.

This week’s roundup contains a commentary piece from KyForward, Kentucky’s user generated news network, explaining the risk that patent reform will take power away from independent inventors, making them unable to enforce their IP. In the Star Tribune, an op-ed piece touches on how HR3309 was passed in a single hearing, without even one independent inventor there to testify, as well as the damaging effects the legislation could have on American inventors.

A special meeting with White House IP counsel Colleen Chien and patent holding companies was held this week to discuss an initiative to make prior art holdings more accessible for officials at the Patent and Trademark Office. This would reduce the number of patents granted, which would therefore improve overall patent quality and limit potential for abusive litigation.

Innovators are finally speaking up and joining forces in the fight against patent reform. This week, over 2000 independent inventors signed a letter to Congress expressing their deep concern over the proposed legislation.

Patent reform has the potential to weaken the United States Patent System. Weakening our patent integrity would have a direct effect on independent inventors, small entities, employment rates and the U.

Attempts to stop frivolous Patent Assertion Entities , pose big risks to the economic engine surrounding invention and innovation. Dean Kamen, one of America’s great inventors says, “if the U.

This week we have 2 articles from CFO and Inc. highlighting both sides of patent reform and giving a more neutral overview of the controversy surrounding this issue.