Report Shows Patent Trolls Are Thriving

eldavojohn writes "The 2009 Patent Litigation Study has been released by Price Waterhouse Coopers. It shows evidence that patent trolls are growing and doing quite well. Using a very conservative view of a non-practicing entity (referred to as NPE in the report), PWC noted that 'damage awards for NPEs have averaged more than double those for practicing entities since 1995' and 'certain federal district courts (particularly Virginia Eastern and Texas Eastern) continue to be more favorable to patent holders, with shorter time-to-trial, higher success rates, and higher median damages awards.' The report paints a dire picture of the state of patent lawsuits and especially those brought by NPEs and also shows that in the past eighteen years the number of patent cases filed yearly is on the rise significantly when normalized against the number of patents granted yearly."

Comments

Solve this the capitalist way

[francium de neobie]

The politicians can't be bothered with minor problems like the technology lead of the US. So let's just solve it the capitalist way.

Get the financial industry into the game, set up mutual funds and exchange traded funds to support patent trolls, get the investment banks into the game.

Once this gets started, within 6 months all the technology companies in the US will be able to do nothing. Then here's the smartest bit of the plan: the whole tech industry ask White House for a bailout because we've collectively become yet another too big to fail. So we get the money while we sit our asses doing nothing. No more death marches.

The perfect win-win situation! Wall Street wins, Silicon Valley wins!

Re:Don't Abbreviate

[cormander]

People are going to abbreviate no matter what you do, so we need to come up with an abbreviation that speaks for itself: POOP - People Orchestrating Obvious Patents Everybody say it with me. These companies are POOP!

Re:"...shorter time-to-trial..."

[TheTurtlesMoves]

Yes! I am a lawyer and i can bill for travel time :D

Re:Those who can do. Those who can't sue.

[kimvette]

Well, considering that one of the hotbeds is Texas, maybe some of the defendants can use the "Well, he needed killin'" defense? ;)