Draft patent bill wins US approval
A House of Representatives committee has approved a draft bill aimed at reining in overly aggressive non-practising entities (NPEs) that demand license fees and threaten lawsuits.
With a majority of 13-6, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, a subsidiary of the Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill.
The bill, called Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters (TROL) Act was pushed forward by subcommittee chairman Lee Terry and is the latest attempt by US lawmakers to clamp down on what are sometimes referred to as “patent trolls”.
If approved by the House of Representatives, the bill will allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to pursue companies that demand excessive licensing fees for patents and threaten lawsuits.
The FTC will only be able to pursue a company if it can prove its demands were issued in bad faith.
The TROL acronym is a play on the term "patent troll," used in some circles to refer to companies that try to assert rights and licensing fees without making products or offering services based on those patents.
According to Gene Quinn, a patent attorney at Zies Widerman & Malek and founder of the IPWatchdog blog, there may be some resistance to expanding the FTC’s reach, particularly because the agency has “frequently, and recently, been sceptical” of non-practising entities’ activities and their activity.
“If the FTC focuses on bogus and overreaching demand letters they should be able to do quite a bit of good without compromising the positions of legitimate innovators who seek redress for infringement,” Quinn added.
US lawmakers have made several attempts to tackle frivolous patent litigation, which has become increasingly common on US shores.
Earlier this year the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act was put on hold after not generating enough support for the proposals from stakeholders.
The TROL act will now move on to the full Energy and Commerce Committee.
