Innovation Act of 2013 -- Going After the Patent Trolls

Another new bill in Congress sponsored by Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), but enjoying broad bi-partisan support from such members as Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Howard Coble (R-NC), Peter Defazio (D-OR), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Blake Farenthold (R-TX). An earlier version of the bill was co-sponsored by Congressman Farenthold and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries from D-NY.

The following summary (courtesy of our friends at the EFF) of the bills key features include:

• Heightened Pleading: Requiring a patent holder to provide basic details (such as which patents and claims are at issue, as well as exactly what products allegedly infringe and how) when it files a lawsuit.
• Fee shifting: Requiring the loser in a patent case to pay attorney’s fees and costs. This would make it harder for trolls to use the extraordinary expense of patent litigation to force a settlement.
• Transparency: The draft includes strong language requiring patent trolls to reveal the parties that would actually benefit from the litigation (called the real party in interest).
• Joinder: If the plaintiff is a shell-company patent troll, the defendant could require the real party in interest to join the litigation. Even better, a prevailing defendant could collect attorney’s fees from the real party in interest if the patent troll can’t or won’t pay.   
• Staying customer suits: Requiring courts to stay patent litigation against customerswhen there is parallel litigation against the manufacturer.
• Discovery reform: Shutting down expensive and often harassing discovery until the court has interpreted the patent. This should make it easier for defendants to dispose offrivolous cases early before the legal fees and court costs really add up.
• Post-grant review: The bill expands an important avenue to challenge a patent's validity at the Patent Office (known as the transitional program for covered business method patents). While this procedure is still too expensive for many of the trolls’ smaller targets, we support efforts to make it easier to knock out bad patents.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/eff-thanks-patent-trolls