News

Maine passes patent troll law

April 21, 2014

U.S. legislators continue to mull over H.R. 3309, the "Patent Innovation Act of 2013," but states aren't waiting for Congress to finish cogitating. Last week, Maine joined several other states taking action to discourage patent trolls from doing business within their borders.

Kentucky, Oregon, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin are considering, or have passed, patent troll legislation. The governor of Idaho signed his state's version into law last month. Vermont passed its patent troll law last year.

The Maine law, "Chapter 757: Actions for Bad Faith Assertion of Patent Infringement," sets out rules that address several standard operating procedures used by patent trolls.

An excerpt from the final legislation defines these bad faith practices:

A.  The court may consider the following factors as evidence that the person made a bad faith assertion of patent infringement:

(1) The demand letter does not contain:

(a) The patent number;

(b) The name and address of the patent owner or owners and assignee or assignees, if any; or

(c) Factual allegations concerning the specific areas in which the target's products, services or technology infringed the patent or are covered by the claims in the patent;

(2) The demand letter does not contain the information described in subparagraph one, the target requested the information and the person did not provide the information within a reasonable period of time;

(3) Prior to sending the demand letter, the person failed to conduct an analysis comparing the claims in the patent to the target's products, services or technology or an analysis was done but does not identify specific areas in which the products, services or technology are covered by the claims in the patent;

(4) The demand letter includes a demand for payment of a license fee or a response within an unreasonably short period of time;

(5) The person offered to license the patent for an amount that is not based on a reasonable estimate of the value of the license;

(6) The person knew or should have known that the assertion of patent infringement is meritless ...

According to the Maine law, a target may bring a civil action in Superior Court against a person who has made a bad faith assertion of patent infringement against the target. 

Remedies the court may consider awarding to a target who prevails against a patent troll include: