Patent Litigation Up in 2015, Despite Efforts to Rein it In; Wall Street Journal, 1/4/16

Ashby Jones, Wall Street Journal; Patent Litigation Up in 2015, Despite Efforts to Rein it In:

"According to the report, released Monday by RPX Corp., NPEs filed over 3,600 patent cases in 2015. NPEs, also referred to derisively by some as “patent trolls,” buy up patents and seek to make money from them through licensing and litigation.

NPEs filed 3,604 cases last year, a sharp increase over 2014, in which NPEs filed 2,891. The number was down slightly from 2013, in which NPEs filed 3,733 lawsuits.

The authors of the study acknowledge that the uptick is somewhat counterintuitive.

In recent years, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have all taken steps to curb litigation based on patents, especially those relating to computer software. Critics argue that many of these patents should not have been awarded in the first place.

The 2011 America Invents Act — Congress’s first overhaul of the patent laws in decades — established a new tribunal, called the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

The PTAB allows a company embroiled in a lawsuit to skip the question of whether it infringed a patent and challenge whether the patent should have been issued in the first place."