How do you protect against a patent troll?

Here are a few ways that you can protect yourself before and during the process of interacting with a patent troll.

1. Have an IP lawyer in your corner.
2. Follow due process in protecting your own intellectual property.
3. Join a group or organization that specializes in protecting against patent trolls.

Who is responsible to ensure that the patent has not been infringed?

2. In which courts/government bodies are patents enforced? Under the Patents Act 1970, the District Court is the court of first instance for patent infringement actions. If the defendant seeks to challenge the validity of the patent during an infringement action, the action must be transferred to the High Court.

What is a patent troll company?

patent troll, also called nonpracticing entity or nonproducing entity (NPE), pejorative term for a company, found most often in the American information technology industry, that uses a portfolio of patents not to produce products but solely to collect licensing fees or settlements on patent infringement from other …

How do patent trolls work?

A patent troll exploits existing structural issues within the U.S. patent and court systems in order to generate revenue. Patent trolls use a number of legal activities and loopholes that involve patents and the court system to earn money, including filing false patent infringement claims.

Can you sue patent trolls?

State and federal government leaders are beginning to take a stand against patent trolls. States are also fighting to curb the business of patent trolls. On May 22, 2013, Vermont passed a law stating that patent trolls can be sued by victimized businesses, their customers, or even the state attorney general.

Who is liable for patent infringement?

Under 35 U.S.C. § 271, anyone who makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention domestically, or imports a patented invention into the United States during the term of the patent, is infringing the patent. Anyone who actively induces someone else to infringe the patent is also liable as an infringer.

What is infringement of a patent?

Violation of a patent owner’s rights with respect to some invention. Unless permitted by the patent owner, one commits patent infringement by making, using, offering to sell, or selling something that contains every element of a patented claim or its equivalent while the patent is in effect.

Why are patent trolls allowed?

If a patent owner does not make, use or sell technology, then the possibility of a counter-suit for infringement would not exist. For this reason, a patent troll is able to enforce patents against large companies which have substantial patent portfolios of their own.

Can you ignore patent trolls?

Yes, you can ignore the letter or outright refuse to pay, but then you risk a ruinously expensive patent infringement lawsuit. Forget about trying to negotiate with the patent troll. Their demand letters often don’t include a phone number, just a post office box to which you are told to send a check.

Was Thomas Edison a patent troll?

As economists have reported, Edison sold many patents in his early career to fund his full-time research and development activities. It was doing this that brought him his fame and fortune as a young innovator at Menlo Park, and ironically it would have brought him notoriety today as a “patent troll.”