It is rare that a court will issue a decision that represents a ground shift in the law, exposes companies to significant and previously unknown penalties for certain conduct, encourages parties that have not suffered any actual injury to file lawsuits, and opens the floodgates to litigation. In December 2009, however, that is exactly what the Federal Circuit did. In Forest Group, Inc. v. Bon Tool Company,1 the Federal Circuit rewrote the law on false patent marking claims, dramatically increased the penalties that can be assessed against companies that improperly mark products or product advertisements with patent numbers, encouraged parties that have suffered no actual harm to file false patent marking claims, and created a "cottage industry" of litigants that have been filing false patent marking claims against a variety of companies en masse.
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