Patent reform, though limited, has been enough to hurt the market for certain types of patent, reports Ina Fried.
Over the past couple of years, more patents are being overturned as part of a more extensive post-grant review process at the patent office. Various court rulings have also made it harder to get injunctions on standards-essential patents. Finally, the Supreme Court set new limits in a key case over software patents, known as the Alice decision. … The view that the value of individual patents has dropped was widely held, though not universal.
Your opinion on the value of such patents depends, it appears, on whether you are currently using them to shake someone down.
