Patent trolls threaten efforts to expand rural broadband and smart agriculture.
Insufficient access to high-speed broadband in rural America not only hurts rural residents but also undermines the U.S. food supply chain and the future of American farmers. Gaining access to high-speed broadband obviously requires strong infrastructure, but as important, it requires ready access to the smart devices that connect to it. We must support policies that ensure access to both of these critical pieces to the puzzle. Unfortunately, an obscure U.S. agency is throwing a major wrench in the works.
America’s agricultural sector is rapidly changing as farmers embrace smart devices that help them increase yields, cut costs, and conserve energy and water. Modern farmers use technologies including drone-supported aerial imaging, temperature and moisture sensors, robots and GPS to help them feed the world’s growing population. The value of “precision agriculture” made possible by online connectivity and high-tech devices is predicted to top $43 billion by 2025.
Technology is a godsend, since farmers are under ever-increasing pressure to feed more people even as development eats up arable land and water supplies dwindle. Smart devices that access the vast resources of the internet boost farmers’ capacity to keep food flowing through U.S. and international supply chains and sustain rural consumers and communities who are inextricably tied to agricultural output.
Farmers and ranchers clearly see the value of devices that support connectivity. A poll of attendees taken at the 2020 American Farm Bureau convention found that that “86% of respondents said mobile electronic devices or other connected technologies were either “Essential” or “Very Important.”
Good progress has been made to connect rural America in recent years, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Fortunately, most government leaders clearly recognize the importance of rural broadband and are taking action to address the “rural divide” (22.3 percent of Americans in rural areas and 27.7 percent of Americans in Tribal lands lack coverage from fixed terrestrial 25/3 Mbps broadband, as compared to only 1.5 percent of Americans in urban areas). Since 2018, the U.S Department of Agriculture and Congress have directed billions of dollars toward fixing rural internet infrastructure. In addition, the recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act earmarked an additional $65 billion to improve broadband internet access with a major focus on rural areas.
Unfortunately, the effectiveness of efforts to expand rural broadband could be stymied by an ongoing problem at a small U.S. government agency, the International Trade Commission (ITC). This agency is supposed to focus on protecting American industries from unfair trading practices. Instead, it has become a popular venue for companies known as non-practicing entities (NPEs) or “patent trolls” and others who pursue dubious patent infringement allegations to threaten outright product bans – ITC exclusion orders – that deny manufacturers the opportunity to import their products into the U.S. Unfortunately, the patent trolls have been piling up cases against the kinds of smart devices farmers rely on.
One of the latest such cases before the ITC involves the Ireland-based NPE Arigna, pushing a weak patent infringement claim targeting a long list of major tech companies including Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft. The ITC exclusion order they are asking for would ban the importation of smartphones, tablets and laptops made by those companies, affecting about 93% of all smartphones. It would devastate the U.S. consumer market and severely impact rural broadband users, slowing the advancement of modern agriculture
And this is not an isolated situation. This latest case is reminiscent of the Neodron ITC case the National Grange wrote about in 2020. In fact, since January 2021, fifteen separate cases have been filed at the ITC featuring efforts to ban smartphones, computers and other connected devices. Even if an exclusion order does not issue, the cost of the incessant litigation and settlements negotiated under the threat of exclusion mean higher consumer prices and less innovation that hurt our farmers’ future.
The ITC must take a harder line against these claims. U.S. law says that the ITC should not issue a product ban if it would go against the public interest, for example, excluding 93% of smartphones on the U.S. market. But, the ITC has elevated patent rights over the public interest for the last several decades. As a result, this obscure agency’s actions directly contradict – and damage – the united efforts of the rest of the U.S. government to bridge the rural digital divide.
Fortunately, Congress can help change this situation by passing the Advancing America’s Interests Act, bipartisan legislation led by Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZ). This bill would modernize the ITC and make it harder for trolls to cash in at the expense of productive companies deeply invested in the future of the U.S. economy.
It is essential that we fix the lack of adequate broadband access that impedes the success of farmers, ranchers and rural communities. But it is no less important that the high-tech devices rural residents depend on for connectivity remain available as well. Congress, the ITC and all other stakeholders must unite to address this important issue.
