STC Overview
The STC is dedicated to helping grow the market and increase innovation in speech recognition technology and applications. The STC aims to foster an environment of cooperation among companies, universities, and research institutions.
SpeechMap Alpha 1.0 provides annotated references to art in the speech industry to facility both prior art and basic research.
The initial focus of the STC is on the patent system. The STC will create shared resources for members and help facilitate non-litigation dispute resolution so that everyone can focus on the business of bringing innovative speech applications to their customers.
- An overburdened patent system has issued seemingly broad IP rights which are being wielded in the courts to threaten innovation and dampen growth throughout the industry.
- Non-practicing entities and others are using the courts and the threat of millions of dollars in legal fees to force settlements in weak cases.
- The knowledge required to show the limitations of these patents, both in scope and newness, lies not in the legal system, but in the community of inventors who built the industry and implemented the systems, from the earliest demos to today's commercial products and the demos for tomorrow.
- The STC unites those who are "skilled in the art" and want to help protect the industry with those who are innovating but concerned with becoming the target of spurious litigation.
The STC was officially formed in December 2009 as a corporation and is in the process of filing for nonprofit status as a trade organization.