[VanL]

The anti-reform group is basically people who make a living licensing patents. Everyone else (Google, Cisco, Amazon... pretty much anyone doing anything over the internet, anyone using computers or networks, all three auto makers, the app developers, anyone in phones) mostly was pro reform.

What made the coalition for reform though, was the non tech industry. Retail, the Chamber of Commerce, banks, grocers, restauranteurs, hoteliers, gaming, insurance, venture capital... Basically everyone else. The pro-reform group was called the big tent for a reason.

This was about a smallish number of companies wanting to extract profits from other companies, and using the brokenness of the patent system to do so.

No one would have objected of there was a sense that the allegations were fair or well-founded. The problem is that courts would by statute try to uphold claims that were ridiculous.

Patent suits are the spam of the court system - spam you have to pay to delete.

[rayiner]

The Partnership for American Innovation, which is basically an anti-reform group, includes Apple, Microsoft, IBM, DuPont, Pfizer, GE, and Ford. These are old-line American engineering companies, and make a living selling products, not licensing patents. They're synonymous with innovation (and STEM job creation) to your average Congresscritter. Reform is going to be difficult without getting more of these sorts of companies on the other side. The computer/internet folks have a very legitimate platform, but the coalition is too thin.