Deutch Introduces End Anonymous Patents Act to Industry Praise
Patent owners should have to identify themselves and any parties with material interest in the patents, Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said Friday, when he announced that he was introducing the End Anonymous Patents Act, HR-2024 (http://1.usa.gov/112hFnn). “The process of uncovering the ultimate owner of a patent can be truly burdensome,” Deutch said in a statement. “Patent trolls go to great lengths to conceal the relevant ownership and interests involved. This total lack of transparency by people seeking to game the system unfairly disadvantages businesses honestly seeking to license patents and those targeted in frivolous lawsuits brought by trolls."
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The bill would require patent owners to identify themselves and “any real party in interest in the patent” to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when they register the patent, pay the patent’s maintenance fees and transfer ownership of the patent. According to the bill, the real parties in interest include “any entity that has the legal right to enforce the patent through an infringement action,” the parent entity of any such party and “any entity that has a controlling interest in the enforcement of the patent."
The bill would also place limitations on damages sought by patent enforcement entities. If a patent owner fails to identify himself as the owner or party in interest and brings an infringement action, the entity may “only collect damages from the date on which” the identification requirements established by the bill are met.
The bill would result in “much-needed transparency through the disclosure of patent sales and clarification of ‘real-party-in-interest,'” Michael Petricone, CEA senior vice president-government and regulatory affairs, said in a statement applauding Deutch and the bill. “Patent trolls take advantage of the fact that it is often very difficult to determine who actually owns a patent,” Petricone said. “They engage in shell games, hide resources and assets and obscure who actually benefits from settlements and judgments,” which is detrimental to the innovative entities that are on the receiving end of the infringement suits, he continued; Deutch’s bill “will better inform parties subject to lawsuits by patent trolls."
Deutch’s bill would increase transparency and “help improve the operation of the patent system, facilitate licensing and thus reduce litigation,” Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez wrote in a blog post (http://bit.ly/18QiyHr), applauding the legislation. “Policymakers increasingly recognize that knowing who owns what patents is critical to a well-functioning patent system,” he said. The bill “will make the patent system more transparent and the marketplace more fluid and dynamic,” said Tim Molino, BSA/The Software Alliance’s director of government relations, in a statement. Molino called the bill’s ownership identification requirements a “simple step” that “will improve technology adoption and licensing by making it easier for potential users of patented inventions to identify and connect with patent holders so they can agree on terms.”