It’s become a bit of shibboleth among the folks who want to roll back the patent reforms of the past decade that patent trolls are a myth. Unfortunately, this week one of those mythical trolls is taking a very real swing at a little GNOME.
Tag Archive for NPE
NPEs at the ITC Illustrate Flaws in U.S. Trade Court
by Josh Landau •
This week, an Irish non-practicing entity (NPE)’s lawsuit against multiple U.S. companies got the go-ahead from a U.S. trade court designed to protect U.S. companies from unfair foreign competition. No, that sentence isn’t backwards. That’s exactly what the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has done in the Neodrón investigation. Should the NPE win, the…
Sunshine: Eclipse Promises Not To Sue Californians
by Josh Landau •
Remember Shipping and Transit? The notorious NPE went bankrupt last year after its campaign against everyone from transit app developers to city transit authorities hit a few potholes. Following a decade-long licensing and litigation campaign leveraging the high cost of patent litigation, including one year in which it filed more patent suits than anyone else,…
It’s The End Of The Podcast Patent And We Know It
by Josh Landau •
In eagerly awaited news, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) determination that Personal Audio’s U.S. Pat. No. 8,112,504 is invalid based on an inter partes review petition from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). That’s right. The podcast patent is dead. And I feel fine. Stand(ing) Setting aside the merits of…
Guest Post: Stop Abusive Patent Litigation, For the Sake of our Economy
by Alan Schoenbaum •
The patent troll debate has officially heated up and the nation’s businesses are paying close attention to the proceedings. The FTC got things started on December 10, 2012 at the Patent Assertion Activities Workshop. This meeting featured several of the country’s leading experts on PAEs, as well as representatives of PAE firms and their defendants,…
Patent troll supporters are ramping up efforts – a response
by Josh Lamel •
Many Patent Progress readers have likely noticed the groundswell of interest directed at addressing the patent troll problem plaguing high-tech innovators. In January, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) held a roundtable to discuss the impact of obfuscatory patent ownership tactics, such as trolls’ use of shell companies. Last month, the Patent Progress panel…
Senator Mike Lee’s Speech at CCIA’s Patent Progress Event Today
by Josh Lamel •
Below is the transcript of Senator Mike Lee’s speech at our event today, How Patent Trolls Harm Innovation. I’m grateful for the opportunity to say a few words about patents and innovation. In particular, I would like to thank Josh Lamel and the CCIA for the invitation to speak, and for organizing a panel to…
Previewing Monday’s DOJ/FTC Workshop on Patent Trolls and Antitrust
by Josh Lamel •
On Monday, Patent Progress will be out in full force at the joint public workshop on patent assertion entity (PAE) behavior organized by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They have put together an excellent series of panels, and we will be live-tweeting the workshop…
Vanishing Licenses – How International Bankruptcy Rules Could Threaten the Networked Patent Economy
by Jorge Contreras •
Why should the patent community care about developments in cross-border insolvency law? Though the topic seems esoteric, there are some important practical reasons to pay attention to what’s happening in the bankruptcy courts. Recall bankrupt Nortel Networks’ sale last year of 6,000 patents to an Apple/RIM/Microsoft-led consortium for $4.5 billion. The Nortel patent sale gave…