Senate Judiciary members warn against anti-competitive patent use

Two ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee recently sent a letter to the Department of Justice expressing their concern that some patents and actions taken to enforce them are stifling competition.  Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-Wi.) expressed their fears about how patent fights are playing out in courts and other legal bodies in the U.S. and around the world, reports www.gamepolitics.com.

In the letter, the two Senators said that some of these practices could be anti-competitive. For example, a company asking the International Trade Commission to completely block the use of a certain patent, rather than talking with a competitor about a compromise poses "a significant threat to competition and innovation," the lawmakers said.