Patent Reform - A Rush To The Courthouse By Trolls - Groklaw

One consequence of the passage of the America Invents Act (HR1249) signed into law by President Obama last Friday (September 16) was a mad rush to the courthouse by some patent trolls. You see, one of the favorite tactics used by patent trolls is to bring a suit with dozens of defendants regardless of whether there are common issues of infringement other than the commonality of the asserted patents. This tactic allows the troll to benefit from a consolidated action, thus drastically reducing the troll's cost of litigation. Of course, this tactic doesn't always work as we learned in the Interval Licensing case.

But Congress, in an attempt to restrain patent trolls and to eliminate this "incentive" to file consolidated actions, included a provision in HR 1249 that would virtually eliminate such actions. That provision, codified in Section 19 of the Act, reads... 

Read the rest at Groklaw here: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011092015101580