Legal Issues: Reining in Patent Trolls: Congress Tries Again

Information Today, Volume 32, Issue 3, April 2015

3 Pages Posted: 5 May 2017

Date Written: April 1, 2015

Abstract

Recall from your high school civics class that any Congressional bill that has not been enacted into law at the end of the two-year Congressional session is said to have “died.” What your civics class may or may not have said, is that for some legislative proposals, it is very common for bills to be reintroduced in the next Congress, to either build on the work that already took place, or to get a new lease on life in the changed political climate that often accompanies a new session of Congress.

Such is the case with the Innovation Act, a patent reform proposal first introduced in 2013 in the House of Representatives that died at the end of 2014 and has just been re-introduced into the new Congress (Introduced as H.R 9). The proposal was and remains a response to the perceived problem of “patent trolls”, persons or companies who buy up patents and then target enterprises and entrepreneurs who work in the same area of the patent and charge them with patent infringement. The classic and most pejorative patent troll business model is not the legitimate exploitation of the patent for innovation, but the generation of revenue through lawsuits, lawsuit settlements, or licensing fees under threat of a lawsuit.

Keywords: Patent, Patent Reform, Patent Trolls, Innovation Act

Suggested Citation

Pike, George H., Legal Issues: Reining in Patent Trolls: Congress Tries Again (April 1, 2015). Information Today, Volume 32, Issue 3, April 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2963235 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2963235

George H. Pike (Contact Author)

Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law ( email )

375 E. Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
United States
312-503-0295 (Phone)
312-503-9230 (Fax)

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