https://www.wired.com/2017/03/supreme-court-bring-sanity-patent-law/
This article aligns with our discussion of “patent trolls” and that could affect innovation in the bigger picture.
“The result is a loss to society. Innovators spend millions of dollars defending themselves from wasteful lawsuits that they otherwise could have spent developing new products and services.”
Soon the Supreme Court could change how the path of patent law is currently heading towards.
Any thoughts?
The issue before the Supreme Court is how the Court’s jurisprudence on venue and jurisdiction affects the Patent Statute. The question is whether a party suing for patent infringement must file its complaint at the defendant’s principal place of business, or can the suing party file a claim where ever the defendant company has offered the alleged infringing item for sale, which the appellate court said was enough to establish minimum contacts.
If the Supreme Court rules that claims can be filed where ever the alleged infringing item is sold, then “Patent Trolls” have the opportunity to “forum shop” and file claims in jurisdictions more amenable to their claims. The article mentions that a jurisdiction in East Texas is notorious for being favorable to patent trolls.
While I have no opinion on whether patent trolling is harmful to innovation (it could inspire inventors to innovate more so they do not have to deal with patent trolls), I think that Congress should be the entity that determines the questions of venue and jurisdiction and not the Supreme Court. Since Patent law is already governed by statute, it makes sense to have Congress to further carve out certain rules for jurisdiction.