Law Commons^™

Fixing Notice Failure: How To Tame The Trolls And Restore Balance To The Patent System, Mark Rawls

William & Mary Business Law Review

Patent litigation has become more frequent, more uncertain, and more expensive. Much of this can be traced to the rise of patent trolls asserting vague and uncertain software patents. Trolls have been derided as bringing frivolous and vexatious suits against productive companies, sapping the very same innovativeness that the patent system is supposed to encourage. Instead, companies are subject to nuisance-value suits as an ordinary course of business; for less established companies, such suits can threaten their very existence. Often, because of uncertain rules about claim construction and the granting of very broad patents, the accused infringer has no notice …