Ocean Tomo has three employees attending this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas. The OTInsights blog will feature the team’s observations and experiences all week. For a live look into SXSW, follow Josh Gammon @GammonIP, Maria Lazarova @lazarovam and Nash Ream @NashReam on Twitter.
SXSW Interactive 2014 is off to a great start in Austin, TX. Maria Lazarova, Nash Ream, and Josh Gammon represented Ocean Tomo at SXSW panel event “Clubbing the Patent Trolls: How We Can Fight Back” on day one! The event featured a panel including two US congressmen and tech industry representatives taking tough questions from participants including Dr. James Bower, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Numedeon Inc. Discussion centered on the various patent reform bills presently before Congress, notably the Innovation Act passed by the House in December 2013 and related Senate proposals co-sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The panel took a decidedly pro-reform, anti-troll stance, but demurred when questioned on the legitimacy of robust licensing entities such as Intellectual Ventures. Panel responses gravitated toward notions of “bad patents,” but criticisms based on the implications to business-at-large of the broad procedural hurdles embedded in the proposed bills remain.