US House and Senate Push Patent Troll Bills

Both the House and Senate factions of Congress are addressing the increasing problem of patent trolls. The bills are designed mainly to stop the companies that are in business only to pursue litigation without legitimate claims.

"The tens of billions of dollars spent on settlements and litigation expenses associated with abusive patent suits represent truly wasted capital – wasted capital that could have been used to create new jobs, fund R&D, and create new innovations and technologies that promote the progress of science and useful arts.

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That's fine and dandy, but until the patent system is actually reformed, all of this is pointless.

I don't know if there's legal frivolity penalties in the US, but couldn't those be enhanced to created to deal with the problem? The trick has always been to get alpha lawyers (judges) to be willing to punish other lawyers for that sort of activity.

teh_chem said:

That's fine and dandy, but until the patent system is actually reformed, all of this is pointless.

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This won't stop the design patents that technophiles think shouldn't exist to begin with, but it will seriously cut down on the trolls. Excellent write-up here on this bill:

https://www.eff.org/pages/six-good-things-about-innovation-act

It's worth noting that the biggest one - Heightened Pleading - is something that should already be going on now according to current case law, but is not being enforced, and so far the Supreme Court has stayed out of it.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/04/federal-circuit-supports-bare-bones-patent-complaints.html

Easiest way to fix it is if you file for a patent YOU (or your company) gets whatever the term of the patent is, if you (or your company) sells of said patent, it has 2 years of protection or whatever time was left which ever is the smaller value.

Patent trolls become a non issue.

teh_chem said:

That's fine and dandy, but until the patent system is actually reformed, all of this is pointless.

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But it's a start at least...

How about they push "Get the fuck outta my business" bills. That would be a huge start.

I wonder if this is going to kill companies like Rambus?

Nice dreams; government actually doing something RIGHT for a change.

BUT mind you that the current judicial system and laws are rigged to benefit LAWYERS, not protect people, rights, property, etc.
Our legal system permits anyone to sue for anything at anytime for any reason. This is a win-win for lawyers. Since many of our elected official are LAWYERS I don't see this problem disappearing.

The push for LOSER PAY as a reform measure is the most logical answer.
This is the most common sense approach. It does not deny anyone their day in court.
IF you have legitimate legal claim that will stand up on a court of law then you should pursue a lawsuit.
BUT if your claim is not legitimate, or you are just after a out of court settlement (what most patent trolls want) then you will NOT pursue a suit because it will fail in court and you pay the court costs of both parties.
This scenario is a loser for CROOKS and LAWYERS.

Ski said:

But it's a start at least...

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Except this whole situation of patent trolls is a problem specifically because patents are granted for things that shouldn't be patented in the first place. It's absurd that it takes time and energy for an entity to contest a patent only after being given a cease and desist order from a troll to have a patent or patent claims be struck down through a lengthy court hearing. It was recently where Myriad genetics--the biotech company that invented a genetic screening test for cancer markers--was suing others for detecting the human gene they were using in their diagnostic. Not because people were using Myriad's test, but rather they were simply identifying the gene. In their patent, Myriad was granted claims to the gene itself (as well as other non-gene things)--the gene that occurs naturally in humans. That should never have gotten through the patent system in the first place since things that occur in nature cannot be patented. The shitty implementation of the patent system is conducive to trolls. The USPTO gets paid for each patent filed; there's little incentive to be selective during the grant period, and instead just leave it up to individuals to fight over. It's absurd. Being harsh on patent trolls--which I'm perfectly happy with--is just bailing out water from a sinking ship instead of patching the holes in the first place. I think this is more of a symbolic gesture than anything meant to fix the problem.

Not sure if anyone recalls this, but not long ago--maybe 2-3 years ago--there was a headline that the patent office was being slightly reformed, and people were rejoicing at the headline. Turns out what happened was that head count for patent clerks at the USPTO was to be reduced significantly 'without sacrificing the patent screening process'; as such, patents couldn't be evaluated quickly enough with as much scrutiny which essentially amounted to the mass-granting of patents with little-to-no evaluation.