An earlier report revealed that President Obama has decided to announce several executive actions that would help fight against patent trolls and reduce the number of patent troll cases seen in the courts, and now it looks like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided that they’ve had enough of patent trolls too. According to a report from the New York Times, FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez is preparing to propose an inquiry in which patent-assertion entities will be put under federal scrutiny. Patent-assertion entities are basically companies whose sole existence is to buy and collect on royalties made from patents which they own or might have bought from another company.
Assuming this proposal goes through, what this means for patent-assertion entities is that should they catch the eye of the FTC, they will be subject to an inquiry where they will need to detail how they operate and if the proceeds they make from patent royalties are actually paid out to the patent’s original owner. Will this proposal help curb patent trolls? We guess we will have to wait and see, but for now it sounds like a pretty good idea.
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