Patent Trolling

Patent Trolling- Why Do Companies Indulge in It?

Patents are the intellectual properties of a person or company and these verify the ownership of a particular item by the party. It is a right which is granted to those who create and bring about something new and unique. A patent’s intention is to prevent any other person or company other than the patent owner to use or sell or produce the patented product. These are granted and enforced according to a nation’s law.

However, certain companies holding these patents misuse their rights and wrongfully sue other companies who have produced the same product. This is called patent trolling and it is regarded as an opportunistic and unnecessary tactic used by the enforcing company against the alleged infringers. The main aim of such companies is to make money from such lawsuits. They are not at all interested in bringing about any innovations in the particular product nor putting it into practice. Such cunning companies exploit the loopholes and weaknesses of the existing patent laws to satisfy their financial greed.

Patent trolls are mostly seen in the software and technology industry. Certain companies garner several vague patents from those companies who are either on the verge on bankruptcy or do not want to enforce them. Then they wait and watch who else is working in the same field. If any other company is found to be releasing any product in connection to the patent or indulging in possible patent infringement they are immediately sued by the trolls. In the last few years such cases of trolling have seen a sudden increase where the targeted company is the one who suffers the highest loss. In many cases, the impact of these trolls falls directly on the target company who had spent much of their precious time and resources in developing the technology. The sued company usually looks to settle the issue outside the court with only a few of them fighting in the court. This has a direct negative impact on the innovations in this field.

One of the biggest examples of patent infringement was of NTP versus RIM, in which the Blackberry producing company RIM was accused and sued in the court by NTP for using their patented technology. A settlement was reached and NTP was paid almost $612.5 million. NTP later sued Google, Motorola, Apple, HTC, LG for wireless e-mail patent infringement as well. This was considered to be a case of patent troll.

It is very difficult to defend oneself in the aftermath of patent troll. Usually the accused infringers will have to bear highly exorbitant amount of the litigation. Moreover, the usual techniques of safeguarding against such patent trolls are useless. However, there are certain strategies which can be employed like stricter regulations for patent filing, compulsory licensing, etc. If the court finds that the patent is too vague or has little worth then the patent infringement case be invalidated by it. Also, the patent holders should be made to compulsorily license a product for a fixed fee if it does not develop it within the stipulated time. This strategy will prevent the troll from surprising with a lawsuit.