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Protecting small businesses and promoting innovation by limiting patent troll abuse : hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, first session, Tuesday, December 17, 2013.

Patent Reform

United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 96


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Written by leading experts from across the world, this Handbook expertly places intellectual property issues in technology transfer into their historical and political context whilst also exploring and framing the development of these intersecting domains for innovative universities in the present and the future.
Stiflers of innovation, patent trolls use overbroad patents based on dated technology to threaten litigation and bring infringement suits against inventors. Trolls, also known as nonpracticing entities (NPEs), typically do not produce products or services but are in the business of litigation. They lie in wait for someone to create a process or product that has some relationship to the patent held by the troll, and then they pounce with threats and lawsuits. The cost to the economy is staggering. In Patent Trolls: Predatory Litigation and the Smothering of Innovation, William J. Watkins, Jr., calls attention to this problem and the challenges it poses to maintaining a robust rate of technological progress. After describing recent trends and efforts to “tame the trolls,” Watkins focuses on ground zero in patent litigation—the Eastern District of Texas, where a combination of factors makes this the lawsuit venue of choice for strategically minded patent trolls. He also examines a more fundamental problem: an outmoded patent system that is wholly ill suited for the modern economy. Finally, he examines proposals for reforming the U.S. patent system, which was created to spur innovation but today is having the opposite effect. If legal reformers heed the analyses and proposals presented in this book, the prospects for crafting a legal environment that promotes innovation are favorable.
Economic research shows that small businesses are the primary driver of job creation in the United States. Yet, the capacity of American small businesses to create jobs is at risk. American firms compete and grow by supplying products and services that consumers demand, and by internationalising their businesses through licensing, franchising, or exporting. For many small companies, patent protection prevents competitors from simply copying their innovations, and aids in attracting investor capital needed to grow, build market share, and create jobs. The aim of this book is to show how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in coordination with other Federal departments and agencies, can best support businesses with international patent protection. Moreover, upon its signing in 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) substantially overhauled U.S. patent law. Included in AIA was the expansion of the prior user rights defense to infringement and broadening the classes of patents that are eligible for the new limited prior user rights defense. (Here, prior user rights, is a defense to patent infringement afforded to a party that was commercially using, or engaged in substantial preparations for commercial use of, an invention later patented by another party). In the debate about the impact of an expanded prior user rights defense on the patent system and innovation more generally, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office produced a report detailing its findings and recommendations on the operation of prior user rights in the industrialised world, which is discussed further in this book.