Congress has not yet passed a federal law to protect innovative businesses from frivolous lawsuits, but one state’s attorney general is taking matters into his own hands.
 
"Patent trolling is basically a 21st century shakedown that forces businesses to choose between costly litigation or ridiculous fees if they want the claim to go away," said Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. To make it easier for Virginia’s businesses to address the threat of frivolous lawsuits from patent trolls, last month AG Herring launched the state’s first-ever Patent Troll Unit.
 
The Patent Troll Unit creates a path for businesses, small and large, to fight back against patent trolls by directly investigating cases of patent trolling and seeking financial penalties and injunctions against those who assert patent infringement claims in ‘bad faith,’ even if those persons or businesses are based outside of Virginia. Trolls drain an estimated $80 billion a year from the U.S. economy annually. That’s $1.5 billion every week that innovators – 80 percent of whom are small businesses – could invest in R&D or hiring.

Has your Virginia-based business been a target of patent trolling? If so, you can report an attack here or by emailing patents@oag.state.va.us a copy of the demand letter and as much information as possible about the troll – including patents asserted, a description of the product that allegedly infringes the patent and whether a license was offered at a certain price. Also, be sure to include details about the patent troll’s actions since receiving the demand letter.

To join CTA’s Innovation Movement in the fight to #fixpatents, click here.