Corporate Counsel Asks if Patent Troll Reform Should Be Left to Judges

With new patent reform legislation introduced in the House of Representatives, Corporate Counsel asks if patent reform should be left to the judiciary, not Congress. But the judiciary may be moving faster anyway: "Most of the key features of the anti-patent troll bill introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, dubbed the 'Innovation Act of 2013', could actually end up duplicating moves made by the judiciary, including two decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," according to Corporate Counsel. Goodlatte's bill would allow for shifting reasonable attorney fees from defendants to patent trolls whose "principal business model is to assert patents as their main source of revenue," but the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up two cases involving patent-case fee-shifting, Corporate Consel also reported.