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Ten States Pass Anti-Patent-Troll Laws, With More To Come
An anonymous reader writes "With patent reform stalled in the Senate, many states have decided to take up the issue themselves. 'As states kicked off their legislative sessions this winter, lawmakers responded to the threats against small businesses by writing bills that would ban "bad faith patent assertions" as a violation of consumer-protection laws. The bills target a specific type of patent troll: the kind that sends out vaguely worded letters demanding licensing fees. The thousands of letters sent out by the "scanner trolls" at MPHJ Technology are often brought up as a case-in-point. The new laws allow trolls that break rules around letter-writing to be sued in state court, either by private companies they've approached for licensing fees, or by state authorities themselves.'"
I immediately thought this was an anti-bully/webtroll law being referenced by the title.
Have they heard of the Commerce Clause?
What about all the patent claims without merit but still vaguely within the realm of reality?
Software patents in particular need to die. This is stupid.
Unless Texas is on that list, I'll give the states an "atta-boy", but it's not as though it will make a serious difference except for smaller business that can't afford regional offices. And let's face it, they're not the serious problem, since it's really only larger firms and patent trolls who go out of their way to set up offices in East Texas that are the problem.
Well, here's hoping that the federal government does the right thing here eventually. I'm typically not one to jump with knee-jerk reactions in favor of government regulation, as over-regulation gone overboard can have a stifling effect on business. Any reasonable analysis demonstrates massive and obvious problems with the current patent system, and the private sector has absolutely demonstrated an inability to handle this problem in a sane solution. In fact, the private sector has gleefully demonstrated that it's perfectly willing to exploit the situation and actually make a fucking business out of the problem. That's about the time for the government to step in and put the hammer down.
The only danger is that whenever the government steps in, there's a very real danger of making a problem worse despite all the best intentions. The individual state's efforts real legacy may be of giving some real, working examples of how to potentially fix the issue before it's tried out on a national level - that's certainly not unprecedented.
BTW, does anyone know why, in fact, the senate's patent reform bill is actually being held up (other than "politics" or "lobbyist")?
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
I would try to avoid states that pass laws like this. Clearly this is a Federal matter.
This is pointless since patents are administered by federal law. Any troll wanting to extort money is going to sue in an out of state venue (preferably Texas), immediately stepping up to the federal courts.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
I wonder if they'll be able to avoid federal preemption here as I suspect the trolls will claim something of the sort. Also, the patent courts already try to make fee shifting nearly impossible even for the most ridiculous assertions and otherwise defend the patent gravy train, so perhaps they'll just take jurisdiction over these claims and make bad faith a nearly impossible standard to meet.
So, their solution to a badly drafted, overly broad and ridiculously vague piece of legislation is... more legislation? And further, each state wants to introduce its own flavour of law into the picture?
What a nightmare. Instead of having to deal with one bad piece of federal legislation, you now have 1 federal and potentially 50 state laws to worry about. The only ones rubbing their hands in glee are patent lawyers.
The only real solution is patent reform, and the stalling members of the Senate ought to lose their jobs.
*rolls eyes*
In the meantime, the rest of the country has to deal with the consequences.
This is the Internet Police. You are under arrest for trolling slashdot. We have hacked your computer and have you IP address and all other information we need to track you and put you in the hole for a long time. Now come to the local police station and turn yourself in and we will give you a much reduced sentence.
Link from TFA to a better overview:
http://www.patentprogress.org/2014/05/13/patent-progresss-guide-to-state-patent-reform-legislation/
[nt]
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Most of the "patent troll" problem comes from three law firms. They're the only ones who've sent out more than two demand letters, according to the EFF.
Is this another +5 Troll thread?
Ten less states where Apple can sue Samsung?
This is about the threat letters, not about actual court cases. If they really will have a case, they will start an actual case, is the idea behind these laws. Trying to threaten someone by claiming you will sue them for a high amount of dollars if they don't pay up a few hundred will be made illegal, not actually the actual suing. This is more about the extortion and blackmail part of the letters than the actual court cases that might ensue.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
The title is confusing. Is it "Anti Patent-Troll" laws or is it "Anti-Patent Troll" laws???
It's a slight difference there in the semantics.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I would try to avoid states that pass laws like this. Clearly this is a Federal matter.
And Congress has been shown themselves to be right on top of this issue too... [/sarcasm]
Congress has shown zero appetite for dealing with this matter. Until they can actually be bothered to do something in the interest of the country I'm fine with states taking up the slack where they can.
At least my "Snarky Internet Forum Post" Copyright will still hold up in a few places.
This is a Constitutional Republic, and the States here are doing what they are supposed to do. Good for them. We need to stop looking at the Fed for everything, as that was not the original intention of the Constitution.