Tag Archives: non-practicing entities

Philanthropist & patent licensing pioneer, Eugene Lang, dead at 98

April 17, 2017 by Bruce Berman 2 Comments

One of America’s most successful and charitable patent licensing strategists passed away last week. 

Eugene M. Lang, describe as “an American folk hero” for his generous philanthropy, grew up on Manhattan’s East 83rd Street in a $12 per month railroad flat.

He went on to donate more than $150 million to charities and institutions during his lifetime for educational causes, including the I Have a Dream Foundation, which he established in 1981; the Eugene Lang College, part of the New School in Manhattan; the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University School of Business; and Swarthmore College, which he entered at 15 on a scholarship.

Much of Lang’s fortune was derived from the Refac Technology Development Corporation, it was reported in his obituary, a public company he founded in 1952 that specialized in the licensing of patents and financing high-tech ventures.

Thousands of Suits

“REFAC held patents relating to LCDs, ATMs, credit card verification systems, bar code scanners, VCRs, cassette players, camcorders, electronic keyboards, and spreadsheets,” reports Wikipedia, “and filed thousands of lawsuits against other corporations to secure licensing fees or out-of-court settlements, a business practice of some very large corporations such as Microsoft and Google as well as large startups such as Intellectual Ventures, and sometimes criticized as patent trolling.“

Some considered Refac International Ltd., known for suing thousands of big and small companies to protect its patents, the model on which other non-practicing entities (NPEs) were based. In 1990, the company was chastised by a federal appeals court in Washington after losing a major lawsuit it filed against 118 Southern California companies selling products with liquid crystal displays.

The New York Times reported that Refac — the name stands for resources and facilities — had made much of its money “by aggressively filing patent infringement suits against companies like IBM and Eastman Kodak and retailers like R.H. Macy and Radio Shack on behalf of inventors of a wide range of products: liquid crystal displays, automated teller machines, bar-code warning systems and spreadsheet software.”

In a letter to The Times [valuable for its historical and factual content], Mr. Lang called the article “grossly distorted” and pointed out that most of the clients represented in lawsuits had sought out Refac after offering licenses to the corporations for their inventions and being turned down.

He illustrated his argument by citing the inventor of the laser who had tried to get industry to recognize his role and succeeded only after Refac won validation of his patents in the courts.

“For Refac, the drama of litigation began in 1975 when Gordon Gould, after battling industry opposition since 1959, asked us to represent his claims as inventor of the laser,” wrote Lang.

“Concluding that Mr. Gould’s claims had genuine merit, Refac, against all odds, accepted the challenge. It took until 1987 and some $4 million, but the courts finally validated every patent of Mr. Gould’s. Despite vituperative reactions from the laser industry – analogous to quotations cited in your article – claims that in 1975 might have been labeled ”all but worthless” now generate annual royalties in excess of $12 million.

Impulsive Gesture

A self-made businessman who flew coach class and traveled on subways and buses, Lang is best remembered for his impulsive gesture in June 1981, when he was invited to deliver the commencement address to 61 sixth graders at Public School 121 on East 103rd Street in Spanish Harlem. He had attended P.S. 121 as a boy 50 years earlier.

He made himself personally available to the students, counseling them when they faced obstacles such as teen pregnancy, addiction, and delinquency. He cheered them at their graduations and helped arrange for jobs. When a student was incarcerated at Sing Sing, he helped him pursue college course work from prison.

In addition to his daughter, Jane Lang, a Washington lawyer and community activist, Lang is survived by two sons, David and the film and stage actor Stephen Lang (Avatar, Conan the Barbarian, Gettysburg); a sister, Barbara Lang; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Mr. Lang the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

For more information about the Eugene M. Lang Foundation, go here.

Image source: thenewschoolhistory.org; newsworks.org

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PTAB fairness data is misleading, say more patent holders

April 10, 2017 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Not all patent owners agree the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is a fairer forum for vetting patent quality today.

While some believe that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) board is no longer the “death squad” that it was described as by the former Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, most patents subject to multiple inter partes reviews are, with an uncanny frequency, either invalidated or severely weakened. Few, emerge as clear winners.

The USPTO established the PTAB, an administrative law body, as part of the America Invents Act in 2012 to eliminate issued patents that should not have been granted because prior art way overlooked. IPRs are said to be a patent office “second look,” but while patent office re-examinations (an earlier review process superseded by IPRs) eliminated many patents that should not have seen the light of day, they also strengthened some, making them easier to license. To date, IPRs effectively have been a one-way street, eliminating many patents that should not have been issued but ineffective at identifying good ones.

An article that appeared last week, “How IPR Gang Tackling Distorts PTAB Statistics,” takes the recently reported data to task for misleading about the ultimate effect of multiple IPR filings on a single patent.

“If you use the PTAB published statistics, they’ll tell you that the institution rate was 50% – because only 1 of 2 petitions was granted. That’s true, as far as it goes. But from the patent owner’s perspective, they used to have 10 claims, and now they have 0.  That’s a 100% kill rate!”

“Assume 10 petitions and one institution,” wrote Peter Harter in IP Watchdog. “A 10% institution rate seems terribly biased towards [in favor of] the patent owner. But if all 10 claims get killed, that’s still a 100% kill rate – pretty good for challengers. When both sides think the deck is egregiously stacked against them, it’s easy to see why there’s no middle ground for compromise and improvement. And the way the PTAB is reporting statistics is to blame.”

An article that appeared recently in Law 360, “Inter Partes Reviews Becoming Friendlier to Patent Owners,” argues that holders whose patents are subjected to IPRs today have a better chance of survival than in the past.

“The PTAB also now institutes inter partes reviews less frequently,” writes Law 360. “Looking at all institution decisions made by the PTAB, the board decided to institute trials more than 85 percent of the time in the first year after inter partes reviews became available (2013) according to data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but only 68 percent of the time in its 2016 fiscal year.”

Statistically Valid

The decline in the institution rate may be statistically valid, but some patent holders argue that it does not tell the whole story. The statistics do not explain that some of the worst, most easily invalidated patents came before the PTAB in the first year of its existence, so the institution rate was destined to go down as it became clearer the weakest patents had been terminated.

Results from a November-December 2016 Bloomberg Law and AIPLA research study asserts that “progress has been made in patent owner attitudes towards IPRs.” However, it really depends on which patent owners you ask: those that have large portfolios that they rarely enforce or those with a small number of quality patents that they wish to license.

Brad D. Pendersen, former chair of AIPLA’s IPR Committee and co-author Bloomberg Law-AIPLA’s Patents After the AIA: Evolving Law and Practice (2016) believes that there is an opportunity for patent holders subject to IPRs to strengthen their patents, despite evidence to the contrary.

“Given the potential gold-plated downstream advantages (in litigation and/or settlement) of surviving an IPR (either at the Decision or Institute stage, at the Final Written Decision stage), and given that one-third of patents survive at the Decision to Institute Stage, it is surprising – but not completely unexpected – that some portion of patent owners are starting to look more favorably on the IPR process.”

It is not clear that most patent owners who license would agree with the “gold-plated” reasoning. If it were true, there would be even fewer patent suits and more owners seeking IPRs of good patents. In fact, it is a bit of a mystery what happens to patents that pass PTAB muster. A significant number appears to move on to district court litigation, and there is little data analyzing if they have greater value or fare any better licensing than patents that are less successful running the IPR gauntlet.

Leading IPR Target

Finjan is an example of an IP holder that engages in licensing whose patents are frequently subject to IPRs. The company has fared surprising well in defending itself at the PTAB, but that success does not seem to have translated into significant shareholder success for the cybersecurity company which also frequently out-licenses its patents.

On March 15, 16 and 17, as reported in The Patent Investor, Finjan won three more IPR rulings, involving Palo Alto Networks. Shares of Finjan (FNJN) currently sell at just $1.54. The company has a micro market capitalization of $35M, $18M on 2016 revenues. Its shares are up significantly over 12 months vs. for the S&P 500 Index, but the company, which lost $12.6M in 2015, showed its first profit in 2016, $350K or .02 per share. Finjan has executed a difficult IP strategy. If successful IPRs have gold-plated its patents, the value has yet to shine through.

Finjan was the fourth most IPR’d patent holder in 2016 and the third most in 2015. It is the most successful company in successfully defending against IPR petitions. Of 47 total IPRs against Finjan patents to date, 32 have been denied institution.

With that track record at the PTAB, one would think Finjan would have a field day licensing its patents, but the IPRs continue to come, and it still must win hard-fought victories in district court litigation. In September, a California jury found that cybersecurity firm Sophos infringed all eight patents asserted in a lawsuit brought by Finjan over software that identifies new computer viruses, awarding the company $15 million in damages.

“We have a portfolio of patents that has been proven durable in light of the increasing number of administrative pathways to challenge validity largely due to two factors,” says Finjan CEO, Phil Hartstein.  “First, our patents were developed jointly and alongside product development of technology that was disruptive to a market.  Second, we do not deviate from the intrinsic record of the assets themselves and vigorously defend our patent rights on the merits.”

Coordinated Challenges

Editor and patent attorney Gene Quinn of IP Watchdog believes that Finjan and other businesses that attempt to out-license their patents are frequently subject to repeated, coordinated attacks.

“At least several patent owners, including Finjan, are routinely subject to serial, harassing IPR challenges,” writes Quinn. “The Patent Office doing something about harassing IPR challenges is long overdue. If the Director is not going to exercise the discretion vested in that Office by the America Invents Act (AIA) hopefully more panels of the Board will take it upon themselves to do just that.

“Patent owner harassment needs to stop. Patent owners shouldn’t have to be subjected to many dozens of IPR challenges before someone recognizes there is coordinated harassment – perhaps even collusion – against certain patent owners who have the audacity to want to be paid for blatant, ongoing, willful infringement.”

23 IPRs Filed on a Single Patent

Zond makes plasma generators, the kind used in manufacturing semiconductors. Pulsed DC plasma generators for magnetron discharge were first introduced in the late 1990s to reduce arcing during for the purpose of improving the quality of thin-film materials. A big breakthrough came in September 2002, when Zond applied for what it describes as a “revolutionary” pulsed technology approach.

Zond is a Massachusetts-based company that wholly owns Zpulser LLC, which commercializes its patent technology by making and selling high-power plasma generators. The patent at issue relates to methods for generating magnetically enhanced plasma.

Over the last three years, Zond’s patents have challenged an average of 12.5 times in IPRs and as many as 23 times.  The patent research firm, Patexia, writes that it is difficult for holders of good patents to survive multiple IPR challenges. In the case of Zond, it has made licensing pretty much impossible.

A study last year, reported in Law 360, showed that Zond’s patents have been challenged in AIA reviews more than those of any other patent owner, including largest patent licensing company, Intellectual Ventures, which owns more than 70,000 patents and took second place on the list.

Zond’s large number of infringement suits, reports Law 360, spurred many companies to band together to challenge the patents in AIA reviews. In addition to Fujitsu and Gillette, petitioners have included Toshiba Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Were potential licensees and defendants in patent suits lining up against Zond’s patents because they were bad and its case without merit, or did they want to destroy some potentially good patents that would have cost them to license?

For IPRs the devil certainly is in the details, as Patexia’s Pedram Sameni points out in a case study, “Can Patents Survive Multiple IPR Challenges?”

“Some have been suggesting that solely relying on the denial rates reported by the patent office is not enough to conclude that patents are surviving the IPR challenge,” writes Sameni. “Many have called PTAB, the patent death squad. Our study shows that in some cases, patents are challenged many times.

“The reality is that it only takes one successful IPR to completely kill all the claims of one patent. Therefore, the case-level status is not the best indication of PTAB performance and patent survival rate. While as IPR’s Final Written Decision usually means that some of the claims were invalidated, it does not necessarily mean that all claims were canceled.”

Not the Full Story

If claims still exist, they could be threats. And potential licensees/defendants will go to lengths to “kill” a patent to avoid paying a license or being dragged into court, including teaming on multiple petitions. Repeat IPRs are an efficient way to make a potential infringement suit or royalty payment disappear for multiple parties.

“The statistics that show that the PTAB is becoming fairer for patent holders do not tell the full story,” a prominent NPE told IP CloseUp. “IPRs are frequently unfair fights between several, well-funded petitioners and a single patent owner who has to run the gauntlet, repeatedly.  Surviving an IPR doesn’t mean anything if subsequent challenges can be filed at any time, especially in coordinated fashion.”

Once a patent is challenged multiple times with different prior arts, it is highly unlikely that any of its claims will survive – no matter how good it is.

“The PTAB may not be a death squad, but challenged patents are put in a kind of headlock that can render them useless. Where are the patents that emerge from IPRs generally intact or whose petitions against them for review are not instituted? They should be eminently licensable, but they are nowhere to be found. The ‘normalization’ statistics that are being cited to show that the PTAB is becoming a fairer forum for patent holders are highly misleading.”

Lack of Uniformity

Another patent licensing business, one whose petitioned patents have survived multiple IPRs, still believes that the lack of uniformity among the many PTAB panels and administrative law judges is a major factor in the continued unfairness that has effectively destroyed patent licensing for many companies and independent inventors.

“It’s difficult to predict how the PTAB will rule,” says the executive, a lawyer. “The first year or two that patents were subjected to IPRs there was a lot of low-hanging – really, rotting –  fruit. Those petitions were almost universally instituted, and many bad patents were appropriately eliminated.”

“But anyone can file and IPR and they can keep filing them. Reliable patents don’t seem to emerge from the process, only ‘bad’ ones, which are eventually neutralized. Few patent holders have the time or money to repeatedly defend themselves in IPRs. This has made otherwise licensable patents pretty much worthless and daily infringement, at least to some, an acceptable way of doing business.”

Image source: patentlyO.com; patentacademyonline.com; 

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EFF’s narrow position on university tech transfer is “wildly misguided”

November 22, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is attempting to paint a scarlet letter on universities with public funding who benefit from sharing discoveries with those best-equipped to monetize them.

The organization’s suggested sanctions for those schools that out-license research has been described as “preposterous,” and its condemnation of licensing specialists “wildly misguided.”

This is according to Richard Epstein, a highly respected professor of Law at NYU, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, in a recent Forbes piece.

Epstein say that the EFF equates all non-practicing entities (NPEs) with so-called patent “trolls” looking to game the system. In fact, a relatively small percentage of NPE suits are filed by those “black hat” businesses with a18063d135cfa169c2f96cce4d167ccdquestionable patents seeking a nuisance settlement.

Recently, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published an extraordinary request to research universities as part of its “Reclaim Invention” campaign: please stop putting your patents into the hands of insidious patent trolls.

EFF, writes Epstein, seeks to put teeth in its proposals by asking state legislatures to enact statutes “to bar state-funded universities from transferring patents to patent-assertion entities, broadly defined and branded as trolls”.  It proposes that these transfers be null and void if they do not meet statutory criteria, and suggest that the universities in question be punished by a forfeiture of research funding and student financial assistance.

In the eyes of the EFF, universities should exercise a higher sense of social responsibility and only sell or license their patents to those companies that “will actually do something with them.”  In its view, universities should resist the temptation to license their patents to the highest bidder. Really?

Its manifesto linking patents and NPEs with important research that is less likely to be shared for the logo_fullbenefit of the community can be found here. EFF sees patents and those who choose to share them through licensing as roadblocks, not bridges.

Blunt Condemnation

Epstein is blunt in his condemnation of the EFF’s proposal: “The first error lies in EFF’s over broad claim that equates NPEs with patent trolls; the second error is to assume that universities have some particular expertise in licensing these patents to potential end users; and the third in its wholesale condemnation of patent enforcement through litigation.”

The Forbes piece can be found here; the EFF “reclaim invention” proposal here. Both are worth reading.

The path of innovation is complex. A short-sighted position regarding who should benefit most from public research funding is self-deafting.

Image source: forbes.com; eff.org

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Responsible Patent Licensing is focus of Wall Street event

January 28, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Not all patent licensing businesses are alike.

“NPE 2016: The Business of Responsible Licensing,” scheduled for March 22 at the Convene conference in New York, will differentiate patent monetization companies by examining their business models, strategies and the managers who run them.

The conference will focus on the non-practicing entity (NPE) industry, including both public and private companies. In 2015, the NPE 2016 brought together leaders from the licensing company sector and the wider corporate IP and investment communities to discuss the challenges and opportunities of running a patent licensing business, especially in today’s challenging climate.

NPE 2016 is the only gathering that examines how NPEs operate and contribute to the innovation and the economy.

3J6A3349Moderator-led panel discussions with audience Q&A at the end of each will be featured. Sessions are designed to focus on the specifics of building and running successful NPE, as well as on the opportunities available to investors.

Beyond Monetization

This year’s sessions will consider licensing best practices, building and managing a patent portfolio, licensing dos and don’ts, litigating in Europe once the Unified Patent Court has been launched, licensing opportunities in new sectors and moving IP commercialization beyond monetization.

Last year’s attendees included:

• NPE executives
• In-house counsel and legal directors
• Private practice lawyers
• Licensing executives
• Patent brokers
• IP policy professionals
• Investment professionals

IP CloseUp readers who use the promo code IPCLOSEUP before February 19 are eligible for a $150 discount off of the full $895 registration.

For more information about NPE 2016 or to register, go here.

For he full program, go here.

 

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Image source: convene.com; iam.com

 

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Harvard study: financial patents lag in quality, especially NPEs’

January 6, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

A recently published Harvard Business School working paper found that financial services patents lack quality because they lag their peers in academic citations.

“Financial Patent Quality: Finance Patents After State Street”  findings indicate that financial services patents are questionable with regard to their references to academic prior art. The study’s findings also show that patents awarded to individuals and associated with non-practicing entities (NPEs) cite less academic prior art, and that financial services patents with fewer of these citations are more likely to be asserted in litigation.

The research also shows that financial services patents cite less non-patent pristacked_1200px_130327or art, and especially less academic prior art.

Patents assigned to individuals and NPEs were particularly problematic with respect to academic citations.
Having fewer academic prior art citations, the HBS study indicates, directly correlates to the likelihood of a financial services patent being the subject of litigation.

Not all patent professionals agree that the number or type of citations play a significant role in determining patent quality or the likelihood that a patent will be enforced.

The study team was led by Josh Lerner, a professor at Harvard Business School and co-author of Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What to do About It.

“Financial Patent Quality” concludes that:

  • Financial services patents cite fewer non-patent prior art publications than the comparison groups. This is especially the case with respect to academic prior art publications.
  • Patents awarded to corporations generally cite more prior art, particularly academic research than do those awarded to individuals or associated with NPEs.
  • Citations of academic prior art are strongly related to whether a finance patent is litigated. In particular, financial services patents with more academic citations, one indicator of higher quality, were subject to less litigation.

The HBS working paper was sponsored by Askeladden L.L.C.  as part of its Patent Quality Initiative, an 294628LOGOeducation, information and advocacy effort with the goal of improving the understanding, use and reliability of patents in financial services and elsewhere. Askeladden is a subsidiary or The Clearing House, the oldest banking association in the United States.

According to Bloomberg BNA the study selected finance patents from specific subclasses of the PTO’s classification code 705, titled, “Data Processing: Financial, Business Practice, Management, or Cost/Price Determination.” Most of the claims of the finance patents involve data processing on generic computing equipment and are, thus, likely to be claimed as software algorithms.

To see the HBS working paper, “Financial Patent Quality,” go here.

Image source: hbs.edu 

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“Patent Investor” tracks licensing company shares & developments

December 21, 2015 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

A new weekly is the first to feature in-depth coverage of public intellectual property monetization companies (PIPCOs). 

I’ve been following The Patent Investor for a few weeks, wondering what news it could provide beyond what I already know and hear about the PIPCO space.

What I discovered is that TPI regularly contains news of developments and trends useful to those interested in or affected by patent licensing businesses – especially the publicly held kind. Editor/reporter Dan Lonkevich goes beyond news releases and news about PIPCOs reported in the business press, to provide the relevant facts that investors need to make informed decisions, and those on that defendants in NPE disputes may wish to be aware of.

He is also not afraid to report bad news or delve into SEC filings, nor is he reluctant to portray a company in a less than favorable light – essential for a credible investor newsletter.

Lonkevich previously worked as the senior editor for The DealFlow Report, a unit of The Street Inc. Prior to that he was a reporter for Bloomberg News in New York. While at Bloomberg, he covered the insurance TPI_Mastheadbusiness, mergers and acquisitions and oil and gas companies. Prior to that, he worked as an associate editor for The National Underwriter and was a reporter for Bestweek, a newsletter  covering the insurance business published by insurance rating company A.M. Best Co.

The Patent Investor, which began publication last year, looks at the publicly listed businesses involved that license and sell patents, and the performance of their shares. TPI differs from Intangible Investor, a column that I write for IAM magazine, which considers PIPCOs, as well as a broad range of indirect investors or IP stakeholders, including operating businesses.

The website describes the newsletter as “uniquely and solely devoted to covering the patent monetization business, unlike more mainstream business and legal publications. It is intended to be of interest to investors, inventors, entrepreneurs, attorneys and investment bankers who work with the growing number of patent monetization companies.”

At $899 for an annual group subscription ($299 for individual subscriptions) TPI, while good value, is not for everyone. However, the cover of each issue, with the first paragraph of key stories, is available for free. Those interested in a sample issue or subscription can receive one.

To see the cover of the latest issue or for a sample, go here.

TPI’s article archive can be found here.

Image source: thepatentinvestor.com

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Acacia shares off 20% on poorer than expected 3Q results

October 23, 2015 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Acacia Research Corp. (NASDAQ: ACTG) was slammed in after-hours trading yesterday and is off 20% by noon today. The S&P 500 Index gained .66%.

The company reported that revenues were $12,994,000, as compared to $37,192,000 in the similar prior-year quarter. Its non-GAAP net loss was $11,458,000, or -$0.23 per diluted share, as compared to non-GAAP net income of $5,050,000, or $0.10 per diluted share.

The public IP licensing company, or PIPCO, reported revenue of $13 million in the period, which did not meet Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $32.8 million.

Acacia Research shares have fallen 48 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $8.79, aacacia_logo_lg fall of 42 percent in the last 12 months.

“Consistent with Acacia’s strategic shift towards a smaller number of higher valued marquee portfolios, our portfolio intake pipeline remains filled with deep and promising patents in the technology, automotive and energy verticals as inventors and companies seek out the best partner to navigate the increasingly complex patent licensing environment,” said Matthew Vella, Acacia Research Corporation CEO and President on today’s earnings call.

A transcript of today’s call can be found here.

Acacia’s third-quarter earnings release can be found here.

Image source: acaciaresearch.com

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Can a Publicly Held Patent Buying Service Solve the ‘Troll’ Problem?

March 12, 2014 by Bruce Berman 1 Comment

An article in Fortune by a former litigator examines a possible market solution for what he calls “the nation’s most pressing legal challenge.”

Taking on the Trolls in the current Fortune is worth reading for what it hints at – a possible market based solution for a growing business problem, patent disputes – as well as what it leaves out, a balanced discussion of what has caused the increase in NPE suits.

The article is written by Roger Parloff, perhaps the best legal journalist in America. Parloff undercuts his profile of Rational Patent Exchange (NASAD: RPXC), a patent buying service which to date has acquired rights on behalf of its clients totaling more than $500m, as a possible NPE solution by drawing upon misleading data and making snide remarks about inventors.

Parloff should know better, and so should reporters at some other major media outlets. He dismisses the majority of patent enforcement as frivolous, and suggests the enforcement numbers are skyrocketing for some high-profile (Fortune 500) targets, like Apple, when in relative terms they may actually be down.

“NPEs have their defenders,” chides Parloff, “… the argument continues, but also society at large, by preserving the incentive systems that our Founding Fathers wrote into the Constitution to ensure that the Thomas Edisons of the world would be motivated to provide the rest of us with the maximum possible benefit from their genius.”

Top NPE Targets

According to statistics attributed to RPX in The Ten Biggest Troll Targets, an excerpt from the Fortune article, which “have been relied upon by academics and government agencies,” NPEs filed 3,608 new suits in 2013, up 19% from the 3,042 they filed in 2012. Their suits named 4,843 total defendants, up 13% from the 4,282 sued a year earlier. NPE suits accounted for 67% of all new patent cases filed last year, and 63% of all new patent defendants. 

“Still, the sheer numbers have made many people skeptical,” continues the award-winning reporter and former criminal litigator. “Is AT&T really stealing breakthrough ideas from various Edisons at a rate of more than once per week? Or might someone be gaming a flawed system, bringing dubious claim in favorable plaintiff’s venues and harvesting nuisance settlements?”

Words like “stealing” and “trolls” are inadequate when it comes to patents. They do not help to capture the complexity of the problem, nor do they serve to address the fundamental issue of disputed innovation. It’s difficult to accuse a party of stealing when patents are so unreliable and their coverage difficult to define. At the same time, those who have the capital and experience to monetize legitimate rights should be allowed to.

Bad Actors on Both Sides

Bad actors exist on both sides of patent disputes. There are 140226110436-rpk17-troll-illo-620xasome plaintiffs who rely on the high cost of litigation to settle quickly and there are tens of thousands of  businesses selling products that infringe others’ inventions. From the defendants that I talk off the record it seems most of the patents being enforced are legitimate. Demonizing all enforcers or all NPEs may  help some companies in the short run, but it is only a small part of the story that will have a negative impact on innovation and commerce.

In fairness, most companies want to do the right thing when they can, but the uncertainty implicit in patents (only a portion of those issued are eventually found valid put to the test) and the courts makes doing so difficult. Businesses are frequently blindsided by patents they never knew existed.

One question rarely asked aloud is how thoroughly have they searched for patents that might read on their products?

When these businesses are confronted with quality patents that the products they sell may be infringing, which they can not cross-license and must pay to practice, they are in state of pseudo-shock.  A leveler playing field for innovation rights is a geography that more innovative businesses are reluctantly becoming familiar with. This is a truth that the Fortune reveals. RPX, however, is only one answer. [Taking on the Trolls is available in its entirety in Fortune in print or to digital subscribers.]

More Inventions, More Disputes

There are more NPE suits for several reasons, including (1) there amount of innovation is much greater, (2) invention returns are higher than in the past, (3) more inventions can now be produced by an individual as opposed to big research lab, (4) NPEs are better at bringing suits than top-heavy, risk-adverse large public businesses or individual inventors, and (5) the America Invents Act (AIA) makes it necessary to separate what litigation-costs-prepared-by-rpx-for-pandodailywould have been several defendants in a single suit into separate suits.

How did patent litigation get so expensive? Don’t ask the law firms, ask the defendants. Time (and cash) is on their side.

When the market for trading potentially dangerous patents brings down the risk factors, you may see more companies proactively taking an early license or using buying groups, like RPX, AST or Unified Patents to acquire patents or bust them early, as opposed to rolling the dice and possibly getting embroiled in a suit or numerous suits.

Given the explosive pace of innovation — the USPTO granted 277,835 patents in 2013 alone —  it’s a wonder that invention disputes have led to only a few dozen suits and a handful of trials annually. It’s inevitable that the numbers rise, unless a system of adjudicating disputes can be improved. A single large tech business’ products can draw upon 20,000 or more inventions, some of them fundamental to a successful product. Techdirt reports that some 250,000 patents impact a smartphone.

RPX has a point in saying that law firms are benefiting the most for invention disputes. (The article cites some data to support that.) But despite their whining most large holders can afford to allow things to play out over time. The potential danger of weaker patents and more arduous and costly monetization options is that established businesses will be allowed to determine what innovation is and what is not. Highly disruptive inventions, those that can create new industries, will have a harder time getting through, especially if they are seen as potentially threatening.

Market Solution

Permitting successful technology companies set the patent agenda will inevitably tip the advantage in their favor. With foreign competition just beginning to heat up, it may not be the best time for this to happen. More competitive, market-based solutions for patent disputes, and fewer legal ones, are a natural evolution for a society built on providing more and better ideas, and a healthy way to maintain our inventive DNA. RPX is one among many who can help to provide a step in that direction.

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Image source: money.cnn.com; rpxcorp.com 

Litigation, News, Transactions, Uncategorized
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Patent Troll “Witch Hunt” Slammed; IP Litigation Tactics, Too

February 27, 2014 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Companies and lawmakers who bash businesses that license patents got a dose of their own bitter medicine this week when their techniques were compared with those of fear-mongering, 1950s anti-communist demagogue Joe McCarthy.

“Villains of the new millennium” is how Jamie Siegel, an Acacia Research Group’s Senior Vice President, characterized the portrayal of non-practicing entities NPEs, also known as patent “trolls,” by those that stand to gain from their demise and who routinely disparage them in the press.

Speaking at the second annual Benchmark Litigation U.S. awards dinner in New York, Siegel was quoted in a story by reporter Michael Loney that appears in the Managing Intellectual Property blog as saying.

“[J]ust as McCarthyism sought to unfairly tag so many with the ‘red’ moniker, Congress, the press, many giant software companies, and even our president, today Jaime-Siegel-retouchedseek to slap the moniker of ‘troll’ on attorneys and business people who are doing nothing more than monetising assets that they own – assets whose very existence is protected by Article 1 Section 8 of our Constitution.” Siegel joined California-based Acacia from Sony last year.

Siegel added that the hysteria around NPEs has been further inflamed by a lack of knowledge, including from the U.S. president. He said Barack Obama showed a lack of understanding when he issued executive directives to change the patent system. Contrary to public perception, he reminded the audience of lawyers, NPEs are good for innovation.

[Gene Quinn in IP Watchdog ran well-linked piece this week that took a deeper look at the sources of NPE-bashing, “Obama on Patents: The One-Sided USPTO Patent Ligation Beta.”]

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In a separate but related development this week, Hon. Randall Rader, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) provided his strongest and most vocal defense of patent holders’ rights to date.

At a global IP conference in California Law.com reported that he said that  the problem of so-called patent trolls really boils down to a problem of excessive litigation costs. And it’s lawyers who are driving up those costs by spending millions on discovery in search of elusive “smoking-gun” documents.

“You yourselves should be going to your trial judges and requesting restrictions on discovery,” he added. “We cannot tolerate $3 million in discovery expense.

randall-r-rader2While chastising lawyers Judge Rader did not challenge their clients who can afford to pay the exorbitant legal bills and make it increasingly difficult for plaintiffs to file a legitimate complaint. No mention was made of the role recent legislation, which effectively forces holders of even the best patents to sue first to get the attention of an alleged infringer and prevent a declaratory judgement, and negotiate a license later.

“The problem isn’t the patent system. The problem isn’t even trolls,” Judge Rader said, and any effort to single them out will inevitably penalize universities, research clinics and other legitimate contributors to the U.S. innovation system.”

Doug Croxall, CEO of Marathon Patent Group (MARA), a patent licensing and management company, said that “the focus should be on patent quality not ownership. Many companies are unaccustomed to having good patents enforced by knowledgeable parties. We need to embrace good inventions, not fear them.”

Image source: daylife.com/photo/09r76Bpdgh003; patlawcenter.pli.edu; acaciaresearch.com

Litigation, News, People, Uncategorized
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When NPR Attacks Patents: Stories are Long on Drama, Short on Truth

July 9, 2013 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

“When Patents Attack… Part II!” revisits old ground about bad IP actors by relying on half-truths and high drama.

“This American Life,” an entertaining weekly NPR news feature, cannot resist using ill-defined “trolls” as a basis to attack the patent system. A more accurate title might be “This American Knife: When Public Radio Attacks Patents!”

Back in July of 2011 “This American Life” (TAL) spent an hour vilifying patent holders who do not practice their inventions, and attempting to convince listeners that they had uncovered a third-party IP monetization scheme that is destroying innovation. The story was largely focused on Intellectual Ventures, the largest patent buyer. “When Patents Attack!” relies on half-truths, questionable sources and a lot theatrics, which makes for good radio, but shoddy journalism.

On May 31 TAL broadcasted “When Patents Attack…, Part Two!“ This time around, the host, Ira Glass, said, TAL’s reporters were urged on by the logo-v5challenge to complete the difficult investigation they had begun two years earlier. Sadly, this piece is should be required listening, like the previous one, especially for those who want to better understand how patent misinformation gets spread around.

The dramatic conclusion to Laura and Alex’s search for information about Intellectual Ventures, and the inventor they claimed they were helping, Chris Crawford. The story turns out to be different from the one Intellectual Ventures originally told.

Separating the Real Story from the Drama

I would rather not go toe-to-toe refuting each claim in the story. However, I will say that presenting facts and partial-facts with insufficient context is extremely damaging to establishing the truth about the real story: patent theft in the U.S.

If you cannot listen to the entire broadcast, please at least catch to the last five minutes. At approximately 50:30 (you can use the play bar to go right there) there is a statement delivered at the Electronic Frontier Foundation meeting in San Francisco by a young medical device inventor who is moved to tears, literally, because he believes that the big bad trolls are inevitably going to destroy his hard work establishing a potentially life-saving invention.

The young inventor explains how he looked up some patents in the heart device area he was working in, saw how many inventions there are and how broadly they are defined and precisely their claims are worded, and determined that he was doomed from the start. Since he believed that he had no chance he refused to develop his brilliant idea and allowed his hard work to be taken away [presumably by trolls, as opposed to medical device manufacturers].

“When Patent Attack…, Part Two!” may be more scurrilous and insulting than Part One. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, while far from perfect, has done a generally good job of identifying and codifying inventions. Due to the USPTO’s lack of resources, in relatively rare instances given the millions of issued patents, it is sometimes necessary for the courts to decide what is novel and unobvious, who is an infringer, and how much must be paid in damages. This system may be inefficient, and benefit some businesses more than others, but it is generally fair, even if the enforcer is not practicing an invention or selling products.

Occasionally, it is necessary for the courts to determine what is valid or infringed, but typically it is left to posterity to determine what is “truly” innovative. This TAL story implies that innovation can be readily identified and classified, belittling those inventions that do not fit its definition.

“Too Many” Patents

The patent attorney introduced in Part Two who claims that there are “too many patents” confuses the issue. (Are there too many parcels or real estate? Perhaps he means that they are too easily granted?) Who is in the position to judge that the owner of an invention that meets the appropriate tests of patentability should not receive one because it lacks sufficient meaning? “When Patents Attack, Parts I and II” plays directly into the hands of businesses that would benefit from a weaker patent system with fewer patents that can potentially be used to undermine their leadership. The exclusivity afforded to patents can provide inventors, SMEs, and in some cases investors, the leverage to challenge traditions and provide the kind of positive destruction that stimulates competition and creates jobs. Heck, Apple, Microsoft, Disney, Google, H-P, Xerox and Amazon all were founded in garages or dorm rooms. America needs to encourage other companies to follow in their footsteps.

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“When Patents Attack, Parts I and II” does little to enlighten listeners about how the patent system really works. It does, however, make it easier for companies to justify practicing others’ inventions, while laughing all the way to the bank. God bless (this) American life.

Image source: thisamericanlife.org

News, Research, Uncategorized
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