UN Hosts Patent Policy Summit, RIM Among Companies That Attended

Patent wars have been ongoing for a while now, and have progressively gotten uglier. Recently, Apple successfully won a patent lawsuit against Samsung which awarded them upwards of $1 billion in damages. Many have felt that that specific case is a microcosm of the overall crappiness of the patent system that exists today.

The United Nations apparently agrees with that sentiment as well and has decided to move forward with a summit aimed at patent policy. This summit which was held by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a branch of the UN, on October 10th in Geneva, Switzerland, featured the biggest players in mobile technology today. Representatives from Apple, RIM, Microsoft, Google, Samsung and many others were in attendance.

According to the ITU, the round-table discussion aimed to "provide a neutral venue for industry, standards bodies and regulators to exchange innovative ideas that can guide future discussions on whether current patent policies and existing industry practices adequately respond to the needs of the various stakeholders."

"We are seeing an unwelcome trend in today's marketplace to use standard-essential patents to block markets," said ITU secretary general Hamadoun Toure.

Hopefully, a summit like this will have the desired effect on the overall state of the patent system and help keep innovation and creativity afloat, while making sure copycats are stopped in their tracks as well.