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11 July 2017Patents

Amazon and Google join six others to create ‘balanced patent policy’

Eight technology companies including Amazon and Google have joined together to form the High Tech Inventors Alliance (HTIA), aimed at supporting a “balanced patent policy”.

Adobe, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Oracle and Salesforce have also joined up, in an attempt to counter “patent troll” litigation, which they claim has nearly tripled since 2005, according to a statement by the alliance released yesterday, July 10.

Other system “dysfunctions” include patent quality, the alliance said.

HTIA aims to support balanced efforts to address the root causes of these problems while advancing a patent system that promotes investment in new technologies and US jobs, the alliance added.

John Thorne, the HTIA’s general counsel and spokesperson, said: “When the patent system does not function well, it undermines rather than supports innovation, to the detriment of all Americans—inventors, employees, investors in productive businesses and, ultimately, consumers.”

The  HTIA companies have more than 400,000 employees in the US and claim to have spent a collective $62.9 billion on research and development in the past year.

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