Donation to Support Patent-Busting Project
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the leading civil liberties organization working to defend freedom in the digital world, has received a $50,000 grant from The Parker Family Foundation of Lexington, Massachusetts, for EFF's Patent-Busting Project.
“We are concerned about the growing number of illegitimate software and Internet patents,” said Glenn Parker, trustee of The Parker Family Foundation. “By investing in EFF, we know that we will be helping to protect the rights of individuals, nonprofits and others that have legitimate noncommercial uses of software and Internet technology.”
EFF is disturbed by the way innovation is stymied by increasing demands for patents that are overly broad (for example, hyperlinks) or exceptionally trivial (such as patenting a piece of software based on adding a single line of code). As a result, technologies built upon prior invention can be tied up in litigation for years over patent disputes.
“We seek to attack these types of patents,” said Jason Schultz, EFF staff attorney and project leader. By doing so, we hope to clear the way for the public to enjoy the benefits of these technologies and help build the case for stronger reform to the patent system. These patents strip our right to use publicly available knowledge, disrupt ongoing research and innovation, and threaten to shut down important community-based projects.”
The patents will be challenged under a legal process called Re-exam, which allows third parties to advocate affirmatively for the invalidity of the patents.
"We'd like to thank The Parker Family Foundation for its generous contribution," added EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. "EFF would not be able to take on important projects like this without the kind support of our funders."
Contact:
Jason Schultz
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jason@eff.org
+1 415 436-9333 x112
Shari Steele
Executive Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
ssteele@eff.org
+1 415 436-9333 x103
For more information on EFF's Patent-Busting Project, see: http://www.eff.org/Patent/
