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Patent Trolls: Change in Law Combats Against Patent Intimidation
The 26-member panel of federal judges recently ruled that a civil procedure law known as Rule 84 be eliminated. The law originally was intended to help small patent holders more easily bring lawsuits against patent infringements, but which became a common tool of patent trolls, allowing them to file large numbers of lawsuits and extort large amounts of money.
A ‘patent troll’ is a company that buys and collects large numbers of patents for the purpose filing lawsuits. These businesses often make no products themselves and simply existing to buy and enforce patents.
A study of ‘patent trolling’ in 2011 found that tech companies paid more than $29 billion for both damages and legal defense fees against patent lawsuits. Large companies paid out on average upwards of $7 million per lawsuit.
Efrat Kasznik, president of Foresight Valuation Group, commented on the ruling, saying that “their entire business model [of patent trolling] relies on intimidation, and that has lost its edge [with the rescinding of Rule 84]. If the patents are not enforceable in court anymore… the troll has no legs to stand on.”
While there is likely little sympathy for them, this news doesn’t bode well for patent trolls. Robert Aronoff, the founder of Pluritas, said that “in some cases, there are just no current buyers for these patents at all.”
