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Make The Patent 'Polluters' Pay: Using Pigovian Fees To Curb Patent Abuse, Brian Love, James E. Bessen
Make The Patent 'Polluters' Pay: Using Pigovian Fees To Curb Patent Abuse, Brian Love, James E. Bessen
Faculty Publications
Inspired by a groundswell of public outrage against a recent spate of egregious patent enforcement targeting small businesses, five patent reform bills have been proposed in the last four months. All five aim to curb nuisance-value patent litigation, a phenomenon popularly referred to as “patent trolling,” by reducing the cost of defending these suits. In this essay, we argue that these bills, while admirable, treat the symptoms of our patent system’s ills, rather than the disease itself: a growing glut of unused high-tech patents that have little practical value apart from use as vehicles for nuisance-value litigation. Accordingly, we urge …
Expanding Patent Law's Customer Suit Exception, Brian J. Love, James C. Yoon
Expanding Patent Law's Customer Suit Exception, Brian J. Love, James C. Yoon
Faculty Publications
Recent years have seen a marked increase in patent suits filed primarily for nuisance value. Non-practicing patent holders like Innovatio, Lodsys, PACid, and many others have collectively sued thousands of alleged patent infringers in cases that generally settle for less than the cost of mounting even the slightest defense. Suits like these overwhelming target the numerous resellers and end users of allegedly infringing products, rather than the accused products’ original manufacturer. More individual defendants means more lawyers, more discovery, and, thus, more litigation costs to inflate settlement amounts. With legislative reform unlikely at present, doctrinal solutions to this problem are …