post Thursday December 12, 2013
A big issue nowadays around patents are patent trolls, but what are patents trolls? Patent trolls are people or companies that buy broadly-worded technology patents, sometimes from firms that go bankrupt, with the intent of suing other companies for illegally infringing on these patents. These trolls are making money with this, because companies will pay the trolls to avoid litigation.
Targets of trolls
The lawsuits from trolls have tripled in the last two years, according to the White House, from 29% of all infringement suits to 62%. This is also shown in the graphic below.
Source: The White House Blog
Trolls have targeted different kind of companies. They have gone after Google and Yahoo for years, but recently they sued restaurants, non-profits and grocery stores. These companies are interesting for the patent trolls, because they don’t have the resources to defend themselves in a lawsuit and thus often arrange a settlement.
An example of such a patent troll action is the following: sending 8.000 letters to coffee chains, hotels and retailers seeking compensation for offering Wi-Fi to customers.
States and State AGs
In America, a couple of states have launched aggressive efforts towards these patent trolls. The trolls have bedevilled businesses such as big companies like Amazon and Facebook to little stores.
The State AGs (Attorney Generals) are also fighting against the patents trolls. Williams Sorell, Vermont Attorney General, started with this by using state consumer laws. He said that the patent system is broken and that he hopes that the Congress takes action. The trolls need to stop and therefore people need to cooperate.
Congress
In June President Obama already signed a series of orders to fight against the trolls and told the Congress to do something against the patent trolls. As a response, a House panel approved legislation on November 20th, aimed at making it more difficult for trolls to file lawsuits with vague patent claims by requiring the lawsuit specifically identify the patent being infringed.
Other opinions
There are also people that have no problems with the patent trolls. One of them is Gene Quinn, a patent attorney and founder of IPWatchdog. From 2010 to 2011 there was an increase 30% in lawsuits after 10 years of fluctuating only slightly. You can say this is the blame of the trolls, but on the other side the number of defendants in a lawsuit is limited since 2011. As a result some firms that would have previously filed a single lawsuit, now break the lawsuit into multiple lawsuits.
Different patent laws
The US patent system needs some changes, as there are 50 different patent laws and they vary per state. Attorney Bryan Farney thinks that the federal government is responsible for it and something has to change to improve the system around patents.
Different patent laws
The US patent system needs some changes, as there are 50 different patent laws and they vary per state. Attorney Bryan Farney thinks that the federal government is responsible for it and something has to change to improve the system around patents.
Source: usatoday
Image source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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