Lawmaker drafts bill targeting patent trolls
State Sen. Anne Haskell, D-Portland, has proposed a bill that aims to curb the practices of patent trolls, where companies acquire patents without any intent to use them, and instead, profit through licensing and litigation with other businesses and nonprofits that allegedly use the patented technology.
Haskell told MPBN that she drafted the law after sitting on a bank’s board of directors and seeing lawsuits come forward regarding ATM technology for which a claimant says it holds a patent. Haskell said fighting such lawsuits can be expensive. Attorney General Janet Mills told the news service that the cost can often result in a company deciding to settle out of court. A Boston University study estimated that lawsuits by patent trolls cost over $29 billion nationwide and that nearly half of all patent infringement lawsuits are now attributed to patent trolls.
The law would allow a party who believes they are the target of a bogus patent infringement case to sue in superior court for general damages, court costs and punitive damages. The bill also would allow the state’s attorney general to take action under the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act against such patent lawsuits.
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