May 15, 2015
“Senate Hearing Observers See PTAB Changes As New Battleground for Patent Trolling Bills,” Bloomberg BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, May 15, 2015
Witnesses at a May 7 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on legislation to address patent litigation abuses stated a clear preference for the Senate version over the House version, but they also expressed concern that both bills lack provisions to attack alleged abuses in administrative proceedings.
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But are the gap-filling provisions already in front of the legislators?
‘‘When I look at the STRONG bill, frankly, I rather like it,’’ Monte L. Falcoff of Harness IP, Troy, Mich., said, referring to a separate bill in the Senate.
Falcoff, currently involved in six inter partes review cases before the PTAB representing both patent owners and patent challengers, said that the bill’s provisions provide ‘‘the right balance’’ to correct the misuse of IPR and the other America Invents Act-enabled post-grant opposition actions.
Whether the Senate will see it that way is anyone’s guess at this point. And the House doesn’t even have a STRONG Patents Act equivalent to consider yet.
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