roundup quandary: Obama administration announces initiative to target patent trolls, protect consumers

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Obama administration announces initiative to target patent trolls, protect consumers

The White House announced an initiative today to curb the use of patents by patent holders as a tool for "frivolous litigation," and to protect "Main Street retailers, consumers and other end-users of productions containing patented technology." The initiative's inception is composed of legislative recommendations to Congress and a handful of executive actions being carried out directly by the White House -- it's essentially an initiative targeting patent trolls. Administration officials wouldn't say which congressional representatives might propose bills carrying the White House's recommendations; they characterized today's announcement as part of the administration's ongoing effort to reform patent law.

Though the terms are broad, a senior Obama administration official told Engadget that today's announcement is "specifically designed to deal with abusive patent legislation" rather than sweeping patent reform, and is, "not designed in any way to pursue legit patent rights holders."

The executive actions (five in total) range from making sure that patent holders are clearly identified -- meant to target patent trolls that intentionally confuse litigation with myriad "shell" companies -- to providing more clear information on patent use to consumers who may be targeted by patent trolls. The legislative recommendations list includes many of the same provisions as the executive actions, and adds even more protections for individual consumers (a stay in suits that target consumers when "an infringement suit has also been brought against a vendor, retailer, or manufacturer," for instance).

Filed under: Science