[tzs]

That's not a very well done petition. Here are some of the problems.

(1) The America Invents act was not toothless. It contains provisions that put major hurt on patent trolls.

(2) It fails to actually state any realistic action items.

(3) It shows a misunderstanding of the role of the President in the patent system. What they are trying to accomplish requires Congressional action, not Presidential action.

[Krylez]

(1) America Invents improves the patent office's efficiency at awarding patents and switches the U.S. from first-to-invent to first-to-file. IMO, both will be a boon to trolls.

(2) The action item is the title of the petition.

(3) Government branches don't operate in silos. When the President demands something from congress and pushes it hard enough, he usually gets something on his desk.

It's a petition, not a bill. I want my President to act, not pretend that he can't do anything about it. He's the one who lit a fire under Congress and called out obstructing members by name to pass healthcare reform. I've relentlessly contacted all my representatives and senators, but congress does nothing without pressure.

[Natsu]

You're right and they should use that to improve the petition, but I still think it's important to show that lots of politically active folks care about this.

Sure, Obama can't just end software patents on his own. But at least it puts the opposition on the map, politically. Still, that's all the more reason to want to make a good case.

[tankenmate]

Here is a petition that calls the WH out on the petitions just being PR stunts; somewhat tongue in cheek, but mostly serious.

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/actually-ta...

[marshray]

I liked it better than the first one.

(1) It's not just trolls that are dragging us all down with patents.

(2) Eliminate patents, starting with the software ones.

(3) The President doesn't vote on the federal budget either, but it's not correct to say he doesn't have a role in it. In this case the USPTO is under the Executive Branch, so actually, I would think the President would have a lot of authority in the matter.

[dlikhten]

(1) Trolls are definitely a problem, but so is apple, MS, and Oracle. Hell we saw what happens when Samsung got pissed off, they decided to start suing for patents the world needs to implement cell phones. Samsung may have failed, but MS may not.

(2) Patents are good, as long as they are NON-OBVIOUS. In the realm of software, a lot of things are obvious. In fact most of what is patented is obvious. The problem is that its non-obvious until an engineer needs to solve it, then it will become obvious as it is on the path to the solution. Software patent problem: SOFTWARE IS ALGORITHMS; MATH! You cannot patent equations. We have lots of proof that software is just an equation, though more complex and in a different form. Hell implement it in Lisp and you have lambda calculus. That's the point.

Software is mathematics. End of story. Cannot be patented.

(3) President is not in full power, but not powerless either. He can put pressure via the citizens.

[marshray]

we saw what happens when Samsung got pissed off, they decided to start suing for patents the world needs to implement cell phones

Wasn't it Apple that fired the first shot there?