{"id":23453,"date":"2016-01-07T13:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T18:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=23453"},"modified":"2016-01-07T13:03:56","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T18:03:56","slug":"patent-litigation-reform-a-conservative-no-brainer-for-2016-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/23453\/patent-litigation-reform-a-conservative-no-brainer-for-2016-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Patent Litigation Reform: A Conservative No-Brainer for 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we enter 2016 and the presidential race accelerates, it can be tempting and even entertaining for conservatives and libertarians to find themselves divided on an array of issues, from foreign policy to immigration reform to how to improve our tax code.\u00a0 Respectful debate and disagreement on such matters is both healthy and necessary.<\/p>\n

On another issue, however, there should be little disagreement:\u00a0 the desperate need for litigation reform in America.\u00a0 That includes patent litigation reform, particularly in light of the fact that , as Wall Street Journal<\/em> legal reporter Ashby Jones reports<\/a>, 2015 just witnessed a 25% increase in patent suits in a single year:<\/p>\n

Patent litigation brought by so-called ‘non-practicing entities’ continued to flourish in 2015, according to a new study, despite repeated attempts to curtail it.\u00a0 According to the report, released Monday by RPX Corp., NPEs filed over 3,600 patent cases in 2015.\u00a0 NPEs, also referred to derisively as ‘patent trolls,’ buy up patents and seek to make money from them through licensing and litigation.\u00a0 NPEs filed 3,604 cases last year, a sharp increase over 2014, in which NPEs filed 2,891.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fortunately, a large and bipartisan majority in Congress has recognized the need for patent litigation reform, which CFIF has strongly and consistently supported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

To address those widespread problems in our current patent litigation system, while also protecting legitimate patent claimants, Congressman Robert Goodlatte (R – Virginia) has reintroduced the Innovation Act.\u00a0\u00a0 Identical legislation passed the House approximately one year ago by a lopsided 325 to 91 vote, and nothing has changed since that date to justify a reversal.<\/p>\n

The bill narrowly targets patent litigation abuses, primarily by introducing several key reforms to the patent litigation process.\u00a0 Those reforms include:\u00a0 (1) Greater ability to shift costs and fees to improper litigants than the current system provides;\u00a0 (2) Heightened pleading standards that require greater clarity and justification for the lawsuit itself;\u00a0 (3) Greater transparency regarding true owners of disputed patents;\u00a0 and (4) Much-needed streamlining of the discovery process during litigation, which often imposes oppressive burdens in time and resources upon respondents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, some opponents of reform have resorted to claiming that patent litigation reform would somehow undermine patent rights or intellectual property rights more broadly.\u00a0 That is simply not the case, as we have explained exhaustively.\u00a0 We at CFIF stand among the strongest proponents<\/a> of IP protections, and we would not support any cause that undermined them.\u00a0 The reality is that the bills we support target patent litigation abuse, not substantive patent rights themselves.\u00a0 The Innovation Act, for instance, simply requires that losing parties in a patent lawsuit demonstrate “that the position and conduct of the nonprevailing party or parties were reasonably justified in law and fact or that special circumstances (such as severe economic hardship to a named inventor) make an award unjust.”<\/p>\n

That is not a difficult hurdle to clear.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, opponents of patent litigation reform must answer why requiring parties who resort to costly and protracted litigation to show that their claim is “reasonably justified in law and fact” is somehow unfair or excessively burdensome.\u00a0\u00a0 They cannot, and there is simply no reason for further delay in achieving patent litigation reform legislation in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we enter 2016 and the presidential race accelerates, it can be tempting and even entertaining for conservatives and libertarians to find themselves divided on an array of issues, from foreign policy to immigration reform to how to improve our tax code.\u00a0 Respectful debate and disagreement on such matters is both healthy and necessary. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4814,2871,1930,4813],"class_list":["post-23453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-innovation-act","tag-intellectual-property","tag-legal-reform","tag-patent-litigation-reform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23453"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23457,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23453\/revisions\/23457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}