Stephen Breyer is retiring, Jeopardy has new hosts, and the Cincinnati Bengals have made the Super Bowl—the world changes constantly. Some things don’t change, though—patent trolls are still going to the ITC to try to extract huge payments from innovators under the threat of having their products barred from the U.S. market. This week’s contestant? …
Tag Archive for Patent Assertion Entity (PAE)
Meet the Western District of Texas—NPEs Certainly Have
by Josh Landau •
For years, the Eastern District of Texas was the favored stomping ground for patent trolls. Short times from filing to trial, shorter trials, judges with local rules friendly to patent plaintiffs, and a jury pool that tended to be friendly to plaintiffs all contributed to this. It probably didn’t hurt that Eastern District judges were…
GNOME Slays Troll
by Josh Landau •
Last year, Patent Progress reported on a troll targeting the GNOME Foundation, a major open source coordinating entity. Despite Director Iancu’s public statement claiming that trolls are a myth, this troll was very real. In fact, it was one of the Rothschild NPEs, one of a plethora of companies Leigh Rothschild has used in nearly…
FTC Hearings #4: Patents, Intellectual Property, and Innovation
by Josh Landau •
This post has been cross-posted to DisCo. Last week, the FTC held the fourth in its set of hearings focusing on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century.” The first day focused on a review of the current landscape of intellectual property and competition. The second day featured a variety of panels focusing on…
Yet More Evidence That NPEs Are Harmful To Innovation
by Josh Landau •
Profs. Cohen, Gurun, and Kominers first published a paper collecting evidence of the impacts of NPEs on innovation in 2014. Recently, they updated the paper, incorporating additional evidence and research from the past four years. The key takeaways? “NPE litigation has a real negative impact on innovation at targeted firms: firms substantially reduce their innovative…
ITC Institutes An Investigation… Based On An NPE’s Complaint
by Josh Landau •
Yesterday, the International Trade Commission (ITC) instituted an investigation based on a complaint filed by an apparent non-practicing entity (NPE), SIPCO. The ITC, as Patent Progress has covered in the past [1][2], is intended to protect American manufacturers from unfair foreign competition. So why did the ITC institute an investigation of American companies filed by…
NPE Resurrects Canceled Patent To Go After Restaurants
by Josh Landau •
A few years ago, a company called MacroSolve stopped creating products and started creating patent litigation. Its tool was a patent that claimed to cover mobile questionnaires. But after several of their targets decided to fight back, filing an ex parte reexamination request that wound up cancelling all of the claims of its patent, MacroSolve…
If A Free Patent Portfolio License Sounds Too Good To Be True—It Is
by Josh Landau •
Non-practicing entities (NPEs) are generally companies with only one asset—their patents. So why would an NPE give away licenses to the only things it can generate value from? If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it might be. Act Now For A Free Patent License! iPEL (Innovative Patents, Ethical Licensing) is a…
Tribal Immunity May Not Be Wonder Drug For Allergan
by Josh Landau •
This article was originally published on Law360 and is reprinted here. You’ve probably already heard the story. Allergan PLC owns patents related to relieving dry eyes. These patents allegedly read on their drug Restasis. They expired in 2014, leading to a group of generic manufacturers getting ready to enter the market with generic versions of the drug. In…
IPR Successes: The Next Five Years
by Josh Landau •
Over the past month, I’ve shown just how successful the inter partes review (IPR) program has been in its first five years. IPR has saved billions of dollars and helped everyone from city governments to realtors to the targets of patent trolls funded by foreign countries. Those stories are listed below: IPR Successes: Trolls and…