These discussions, which will take place in February in New York and in the Silicon Valley, will focus on the the terms used to define a patent's scope, among other topics.

ENGADGET

With all this free trade and trade barriers falling, it's really hard for an individual like me with a global-scope patent to file all over the world and get patent protection everywhere, and having to go overseas to fight infringement.

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Personally, I would expand the scope of patent coverage but, if nothing else, our bias should be opposed to substantial changes.

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Selling a patent portfolio of that size and scope to a company like Microsoft might mean that AOL gets lots of mail, from shareholders.

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If the patent law is being used for reasons far beyond its scope, then re-evaluate it and fix the actual problems that are responsible for the mess, not just the low-hanging fruit.

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