Most Software Patent Trolls Lose Lawsuits 108
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the dismissed-without-prejudice dept.
from the dismissed-without-prejudice dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A new study is out concerning patent trolls and software patents, which found the rather surprising news that the most litigated patents tend to lose nearly 90% of the time. When broken down into different categories, patent trolls and software patents lose their lawsuits most often. While some may suggest this means 'the system is working,' that's not really true. The data suggests that most companies, when threatened with a lawsuit, end up settling or licensing to avoid the high costs of litigating. But the fact that so few software patents and patent trolls do well at trial may be more incentive to fight back. Either way, what does seem pretty obvious is that all those ridiculous patents you see in patent lawsuits are, in fact, bad patents."
Re:Just ninety percent? (Score:5, Informative)
"Troll" has a precise definition in their study - a non-practicising entity. So if the patent being sued over isn't used by the entity doing the suing in any of their products/etc, they are labelled a "patent troll" in the study.
Re:On the other hand... (Score:3, Informative)
Depends. The patent holder can lose either by the judge invalidating the patent, or by the judge saying that the accused's usage doesn't violate the patent. The latter obviously leaves the patent intact.
If the judge invalidates the patent, the patent holder can still go back to the USPTO and ask to change the wording and for a new patent with a different/narrower scope to be granted. (I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is a Reissued patent [swpat.org].)
For example (although it's not the same situation), the Bilski patent owners, having had their patent rejected by the USPTO, the BPAI, the CAFC, and the Supreme Court, are still persuing their patent! These things don't die :-/
Re:In fact, the opposite of true (Score:3, Informative)