Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-24-2013
ISSN
0161-7389
Publisher
Gannett Co.
Language
en-US
Abstract
This essay argues that Congress should increase the size and frequency of patent renewal fees to reduce patent troll activity. Patents owned by trolls are generally old — twelve years on average — when finally asserted in court. Many such patents were originally filed to protect inventions that long ago became obsolete, and today hold value only because they were written so broadly that they arguably can be interpreted to cover technologies developed much later by other inventors. To shackle the dead hand of old inventions, other countries charge patent owners annual fees that must be paid to keep the patent from expiring. This way, only patents directed to truly valuable inventions are kept in force for the full twenty years of the patent term. Obsolete patents expire sooner, generally before they fall into the hands of those who would misuse them. If U.S. renewal fees were increased, trolls' patent holdings would shrink and their expenses would grow.
Recommended Citation
James Bessen & Brian Love,
Tax the Patent Trolls
,
in
USA Today
(2013).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/shorter_works/184
SSRN URL
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2310182
Publisher URL
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/07/24/tax-patent-trolls-lawsuits-column/2578675/
