Reps. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, and Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., introduced a bipartisan bill in the House Wednesday afternoon to help mitigate the impact of lawsuits from patent trolls. The bill is H.R. 2639, The Patent Litigation and Innovation Act of 2013. This bill is noteworthy as the first bill introduced in this Congress that specifically helps innocent purchasers who get sued by patent trolls.
The bill is similar to the Patent Abuse Reduction Act S. 1013 introduced by Sen. John Cornyn R-Texas, but it offers some additional protections like slowing down costly parts of the lawsuit until some threshold issues can be worked out.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association is a longtime advocate of comprehensive patent reform. The following can be attributed to CCIA patent counsel Matt Levy.
“It’s exciting to see lawmakers proposing new solutions to help curb abuses of the patent system – in this case lawsuits that target consumers.We are delighted to be supporting Rep. Jeffries and Rep. Farenthold on this bill.
“Another very interesting idea in the bill is to treat patent cases more like securities cases in that judges would have to do a review at the end of the case to determine if the attorneys satisfied their obligations to not file frivolous papers with the court.”