FAQs

What is the Patent Quality Initiative (PQI)?

The Patent Quality Initiative is an education, information and advocacy effort of Askeladden L.L.C., the goal of which is to improve the understanding, use and reliability of patents in financial services and elsewhere.

What are PQI’s activities?

Through the PQI, Askeladden undertakes a number of strategic programs including making pertinent prior art more easily accessible, providing educational research and briefings on the patent system and evolution of technology in financial services, and filing amicus briefs that highlight issues critical to patent quality.  Additionally, to help reduce impediments to innovation, Askeladden petitions the United States Patent and Trademark Office to take a second look at patents that it believes are invalid.

Who are Askeladden’s members?

The Patent Quality Initiative, under Askeladden L.L.C., is the product of thought-leadership provided by The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C.  Since its founding in 1853, The Clearing House has delivered safe and reliable payments systems, facilitated bank-led payments innovation, and provided thought leadership on strategic payments issues.  See The Clearing House’s web page at www.theclearinghouse.org.

Who benefits from Askeladden's PQI?

Askeladden's PQI also supports better patent quality for all intellectual property stakeholders, including consumers, businesses of all sizes, universities and inventors.  A particular goal of Askeladden's PQI is to minimize bad patents in the financial services sector, including those that might interrupt the speed, safety and security of financial transactions.

Askeladden's PQI also strives to help journalists, consumers and others understand the intellectual property issues affecting commerce.

Why should I care?

Enforcing overly-broad, invalid financial services related patents compromises the integrity of the banking system, drives up costs, and threatens consumers’ data and financial security. Poor quality patents affect many other industries in similar ways.