Patents being invalidated since 2000 could have a jarring impact on the gaming industry. Is Microsoft's patent on in-game media playback any good? How about Sony's Blu-ray Patent? Immersion's rumble patent?
New York Times Writes:
Law professors are sometimes influential, but in a general way. Their insights can help shape the law, over time and at the margins.
But John F. Duffy, who teaches at the George Washington University Law School, is a different kind of law professor. He has discovered a constitutional flaw in the appointment process over the last eight years for judges who decide patent appeals and disputes, and his short paper documenting the problem seems poised to undo thousands of patent decisions concerning claims worth billions of dollars.
His basic point does not appear to be in dispute. Since 2000, patent judges have been appointed by a government official without the constitutional power to do so.
