The president of the U.S.A. Barack Obama has announced plans to reform the laws governing patents to limit the phenomenon of “patent trolling”, which is the use of patents for the sole purpose of restricting competition and to obtain money by legal action or by agreements following threats of such action.
IBM launched Watson Engagement Advisor, a new version of its artificial intelligence technology system Watson. Two years after winning the quiz Jeopardy!, IBM Watson will now be used for customer service, even handling conversations with users understending their questions and providing them with adequate answers via chat, e-mail, SMS and smartphone apps.
Google, in collaboration with other companies such as BlackBerry, EarthLink and Red Hat, submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) a series of comments. Their request is of a greater vigilance against the phenomenon of “patent trolling”, which is the use of patents for the sole purpose of restricting competition and to obtain money through lawsuits or through agreements following threats of such action.
