Big Tech relies on Alice-Mayo exceptions – they’ll fight PERA

But Big Tech—eager to entrench its dominance—has used its clout in Washington to systematically attack the U.S. patent system and disadvantage smaller rivals.

Legislative changes, as well as a number of troubling Supreme Court rulings, have made it more difficult to obtain, defend and enforce patents. For instance, the America Invents Act, passed by Congress in 2011, created a new review process for the patent office. This process usually adds years of delay and makes it considerably more costly to defend one's patents, and increases the risk of losing intellectual property rights—all under lower standards than applied in court.

In addition, recent Supreme Court decisions in cases like Bilski v. Kappos, Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories and Alice v. CLS Bank International created enormous uncertainty over what kinds of inventions are even eligible for a patent, and wholly excluded medical diagnostic methods, no matter how useful.

All of this has generated a windfall for America's largest tech companies. After all, if it's too difficult—or too expensive—for small operations to avail themselves of their patent rights, then Big Tech firms can help themselves to promising innovations without paying inventors or worrying about legal consequences.

That's exactly what has happened.

Sonos' case against Google is a rare instance in which the less powerful company has, so far, triumphed. If more lawsuits result in similar outcomes—and increase the financial risk for Big Tech companies—it's possible executives might think twice before violating IP rights.

For the most part, smaller firms lack the resources and expertise to defend and assert their rights in the first place. The consequences for inventors, and the U.S. economy in general, have been devastating.

As larger tech companies grow more powerful through the abuse of what have long been considered property rights in patents, it's harder for start-ups and innovative small businesses to achieve independent success. The best many can hope for is an acquisition offer from one of the tech giants at depressed prices.

The result is that a dozen or so of the biggest players in the tech industry are able to hamstring a segment of our economy that is essential to American competitiveness, job growth and technological leadership.

To date, the Big Tech lobby has justified its anti-IP campaign as a battle against "patent trolls"—a pejorative term for companies that supposedly buy up patents with the aim of filing lawsuits against tech companies that adopt similar technologies.