IP Protection for Startups: The Role of Legislation in Stopping Patent Trolls and Encouraging Innovation
Kristin Garr In the past five years, the rate of startups entering the market has drastically increased, and it continues to see an upward trend, giving rise to the phenomenon known as the “startup boom.” While the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has implemented major changes to the patent system in the past decade, the agency has not been able to address the problem that is crippling the success of emerging companies: patent trolls. Various states’ legislatures have recognized this issue and enacted statutes prohibiting bad faith patent assertions as a result. This article explains the startup industry’s...
Intersection of American Law and Technology: The Innovation Act’s Fight Against Patent Trolls
Mohamed Elfarra The economic and social burdens of frivolous litigation have led “academics, policymakers, and even judges to suggest that patent law[s] may have overleaped its proper bounds, or at least become too likely to frustrate, rather than to fulfill, its constitutional purpose of ‘promot[ing] the progress of science and useful arts’. The primary causes of this problem are the overly litigious entities pejoratively known as patent trolls, who are collectively responsible for the majority of today’s patent infringement cases. Although solutions to this complex problem are evasive, the need for reform is readily apparent. One of the most important...