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Full-Text Articles in Law
Patent Assertion Entities, Colleen Chien
Patent Assertion Entities, Colleen Chien
Faculty Publications
The DOJ and FTC held a workshop on patent assertion entities on Dec 10 2012. This talk gives an overview of the economics, policy of patent assertion entities drawing upon previous and new empirical work. Using pathbreaking, disruptive techniques and capturing economies of scale, PAEs drive down the cost of patent enforcement. PAEs brought 61% of all patent litigations in 2012, representing fewer defendants than in 2011, because of changes in the patent law. 76% of PAE defendants were sued by a PAE that sued more than 15 defendants, and 61% were sued by a PAE that had brought 8 …
Startups And Patent Trolls, Colleen Chien
Startups And Patent Trolls, Colleen Chien
Faculty Publications
While patent assertion entities (or patent “trolls”) have received a lot of attention, little of it has focused on the distributional impacts of their demands. The impact on PAEs on startups is crucial, because startups contribute to job creation and innovation, making them potential targets and sources of patents. To assess the impact of trolls on startups, I analyzed a comprehensive database of patent litigations from 2005 to the present, conducted a non-random survey of 223 tech company startups, and interviewed nearly twenty entities with relevant knowledge of startup patent issues.
I find that although large companies tend to dominate …
Reforming Software Patents, Colleen Chien
Reforming Software Patents, Colleen Chien
Faculty Publications
While many believe the patent system has hit a historic and unprecedented low, discontent with patents, and in particular with software patents, is nothing new. In 1966, a Presidential Commission recommended prohibiting software patents because of the PTO’s inability to vet them. In 1883, the Supreme Court railed against “speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax.” In 1836, the Ruggles Report documented how lax patent standards, “encourag[ed] fraudulent speculators in patent rights, deluging the entire …
Race To The Bottom, Colleen Chien
Race To The Bottom, Colleen Chien
Faculty Publications
The defensive patent arms race, and companies’ consequent focus on quantity rather than quality as they build their portfolios, causes them and others many problems. This article in Intellectual Asset Magazine exposes the role that practicing companies themselves and their patenting practices have had in keeping patent quality low, the backlog long, and patent trolls well-stocked with patents. It discusses various methods for fostering patent peace including by outlawing certain types of "arms" (a software patent ban), making patents harder to obtain or hold onto (i.e. by increasing registration/maintenance fees), and making patents less nuclear (e.g. by introducing an independent …