US: Missouri takes on patent trolls

Missouri has reportedly passed new legislation aimed at curbing anticompetitive abuses by patent trolls.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed the new bill into law last week in efforts to protect the state’s consumers and businesses from patent assertion entities. The law bans bat faith assertions of patent lawsuits.

The bill reportedly creates a seven-factor checklist that courts should use to determine whether a patent infringement lawsuit was filed in bad faith. The legislation allows a person to take action and recover damages if he or she believes he or she is the target of unfair patent litigation.

The law also allows Missouri’s attorney general to investigate and prosecute such bad faith assertions of patent infringement cases.

The state’s law comes as the Federal Trade Commission continues its probe of the so-called patent trolls, which acquire patents for the sole purpose of making money off licensing the intellectual property or suing those that use the patents, which are often standard essential.

Full content: Washington Examiner

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