Standards and the Law

摘要

The Federal Trade Commisson (FTC) has released its long awaited study on Patent Assertion Entity (commonly known as patent trolls) activity. Using its subpoena power, the agency obtained data on more than 2000 patent holding companies, a minority of which have asserted their patent rights in court. The report offers important insight into PAE business modelsprimarily identifying two categories: Litigation PAEs and Portfolio PAEs. The FTC found that Litigation PAE licenses are “typically ... less than the lower bounds of early stage litigation costs" and thus seen by the FTC as consistent with "nuisance litigation."The report suggests a variety of litigation reforms to help alleviate potential abusive litigation tactics by patent owners. The 269 page report is available at https://www.ftc.gov/.