US House panel passes bill targeting ‘patent trolls’
Monday, 25 November 2013 00:00
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Reuters: A US congressional panel last week approved a bill targeting patent ‘trolls’, companies that buy or license patents from others and then aggressively pursue licensing fees or file infringement lawsuits.
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 33-5 to send to the full House a measure that appeared to have the best chance of reining in patent assertion entities, known derisively as ‘trolls’.
The White House in June urged Congress to take steps to curb abusive patent lawsuits that have sprung up in recent years, particularly in the technology sector.
The patent reform bill, introduced by Representative Robert Goodlatte, was approved after Goodlatte stripped out a measure that would have changed how the US Patent and Trademark Office reviews software patents to determine if they are valid.
The bill aims to fight frivolous patent litigation. In one case, a patent assertion entity, or PAE, demanded licensing payments from retailers who provided services to customers such as free Wi-Fi.
“Within the past couple of years we have seen an exponential increase in the use of weak or poorly granted patents against American businesses with the hopes of securing a quick payday,” said Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, who chairs the committee.
“These suits target a settlement just under what it would cost for litigation, knowing that these businesses will want to avoid costly litigation and probably pay up,” Goodlatte said at the committee session in which the bill was approved.
The bill requires judges hearing patent cases to award fees to the winner in an infringement lawsuit, unless the judge decides otherwise. The bill would also require companies filing infringement lawsuits to provide specific details on what patent is infringed and how it is used.
