Relief could come in a rarely used power of the Patent and Trademark czar, thinks New York lawyer Marylee Jenkins, who specializes in Net and new media patents and who chairs an American Bar Association committee on intellectual property. Jenkins points out that Commissioner Todd Dickinson has the authority to order the re-examination of patents, and he has used it. In December, Dickinson mandated a retake on a patent for fixing Y2K glitches granted a year earlier to a California inventor. Not that Dickinson can operate on a whim. That could happen if e-businesses can demonstrate that they were using affiliates' programs before Amazon applied for its patent, for example.
People like to be able to protect their creativity and investments.
The goal is to make sure this doesn't unnecessarily impede technological advancement. Meanwhile, savvy companies run the software powering their business models past seasoned patent lawyers, who check for possible infringement problems. Sometimes a little tinkering with the code will ward off a lawsuit. It can be worth the effort.