Will these regulations make it less likely that a patent troll might take on a frivolous lawsuit? Perhaps, but it may also result in a higher win percentage for plaintiffs who only take sure bets to court, and those plaintiffs will be in line to obtain payment of their attorneys fees as well. Also, there’s nothing to prevent the most nefarious actors, the true trolls who only intend to reap money from patents regardless of infringement, from deciding to go bankrupt and not pay fees if they lose. Still others who are extremely well funded are likely be to able to purchase patents for pennies on the dollar, building enormous portfolios that will make the Intellectual Ventures portfolio look small in comparison. Will big-tech fight against such well funded super patent trolls? If the don’t then what good does fee-shifting do? You have to win to obtain the fees, so there is a real possibility that this legislation will not only fail to cure the problem but instead make it worse while destroying the smaller players who are the real innovators.
↧
