Last class, we spent some time talking about patent trolls, so I decided to look further into it. To clarify, a patent troll is a company or person that acquires a lot of patents without having any plans to actually produce the products.A patent troll usually obtains these patents from bankrupt companies at extremely low prices, or by doing some research so that they can prove that they obtained the idea first. In other words, it is their business strategy to acquire as many patents as they can, launch lawsuits against any infringing companies, and make money off of them/disable them from producing the products. Therefore, it is clear that patent trolls are killing innovation and not valuable to the market; a study out of Boston University estimates that the direct economic damage that patent trolls cause are about 30 billion dollars a year.
Because patent trolls have been increasing over the last several years, President Obama has also brought his attention to this issue. He is strongly in favor of patent reform, saying that patent trolls simply "leverage and hijack somebody else's idea and see if they can extort some money out of them."
I wonder how the reform will take place; the President attempted a reform a few years ago as well, but people say it only went halfway. Hopefully this time, a noticeable transformation will take place in the patent system.
I know right now the SHIELD act is making its way through Congress and it is supposed to deter patent trolls because it will make the plaintiff pay the legal fees of lawsuits that ultimately have no legal basis for infringement. I wonder if this passes how effective it will be.
I know right now the SHIELD act is making its way through Congress and it is supposed to deter patent trolls because it will make the plaintiff pay the legal fees of lawsuits that ultimately have no legal basis for infringement. I wonder if this passes how effective it will be.
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