New coalition seeks legislative controls on patent trolls
The National Retail Federation and Oracle have organized United for Patent Reform to pursue legislative reform targeting seven aspects of patent litigation.
The National Retail Federation has launched United for Patent Reform, a broad business coalition formed to pursue legislation aimed at curbing abuse of the patent system by "patent trolls." Co-chaired by NRF and Oracle, the group is to be comprised of retail, hospitality and technology associations and companies, a press release said.
"Patent trolls have abused our patent system with their coercive bribery schemes for far too long," said NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French. "There is strong consensus in the business community and in Washington that patent reform legislation is needed to end the patent troll racket. The White House, Supreme Court and Congress have all signaled that patent reform is necessary and now is the time to act."
The coalition has outlined seven core principles:
- demand-letter transparency;
- heightened pleading requirements;
- customer and end user protections;
- litigation procedures efficiency;
- discovery fee shifting;
- legal fee recovery; and
- litigation alternatives.
Patent trolls are firms that buy obscure, general or vague patents with the sole purpose of extracting licensing arrangements and settlement payments by threatening businesses and companies with claims of patent infringement.
Threats often involve opaque claims regarding common practices, services or technology. The trolls' hope is that businesses will settle or pay a licensing fee rather than hire attorneys to fight back in court. The Boston University School of Law estimates that abusive patent troll practices cost the U.S. economy roughly $30 billion per year.