New Bill Would Require Patent Trolls To Pay Defendants' Attorneys 196
Zordak writes "According to Law 360, H.R. 845, the 'Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes' (SHIELD) Act of 2013 would require non-practicing entities that lose in patent litigation to pay the full legal costs of accused infringers. The new bill (PDF) would define a 'non-practicing entity' as a plaintiff that is neither the original inventor or assignee of a patent, and that has not made its own 'substantial investment in exploiting the patent.' The bill is designed to particularly have a chilling effect on 'shotgun' litigation tactics by NPEs, in which they sue numerous defendants on a patent with only a vague case for infringement. Notably, once a party is deemed to be an NPE early in the litigation, they will be required to post a bond to cover the defendants' litigation costs before going forward."
just another club to protect large corporations (Score:1, Interesting)
Why am I having a hard time believing this is real and has a hope of being passed into law?
Because you haven't realized that if this was passed then large companies who've stolen an idea from a non-corporation inventor before he/she has obtained funding to manufacturer his/her idea will use the threat of large-company-size legal bills to browbeat the independent inventor into forgoing a suit and settling for peanuts instead of what they would have paid if they had to license the invention from another large corporation.
*I* would have a hard time believing this *won't* be passed into law.
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Interesting)