House passes Bill to Block Patent Trolls

This week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3309, the Innovation Act.  This bill aims to block abusive patent litigation. The bill enjoys bipartisan support; it passed the House by a vote of 325-91 and passed the Judiciary Committee by a vote of 33-5. The subject of hearings and public input in the House, this bill was developed to target “patent trolls” and also to protect legitimate patents. The bill will discourage patent trolls by requiring more specific pleadings from companies asserting patent infringement, including the name of the party who benefits from the litigation, the specifics of the patent in question, the specific products that allegedly infringe on the patents and what processes infringe on these patents.  It also allows judges to stay individual user suits when the manufacturer is pursuing parallel litigation against the patent holder and make it easier to collect fees from companies that have abused the system (forces the loser to pay the winner’s legal costs). There are currently three versions of the bill in the Senate. For more information, please contact Jeff Shoaf at (202) 547-3350 or shoafj@agc.org.