Bill would force patent trolls to pay defendants' legal bills
A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives attempts to deter frivolous patent litigation by forcing unsuccessful patent plaintiffs to cover defendants' legal costs. Introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act is limited to patents related to computer hardware and software.
"Patent trolls don't create new technology and they don't create American jobs," DeFazio said in a news release. "They pad their pockets by buying patents on products they didn't create and then suing the innovators who did the hard work and created the product."
While DeFazio portrays the SHIELD Act as anti-troll legislation, its provisions don't seem to be limited to non-practicing entities. Any plantiff who a court finds "did not have a reasonable likelihood of succeeding" could be on the hook for his opponent's legal bills, regardless of whether the plaintiff is using the technology in question.
