FTC Commissioner Brill Says, Don’t Wait to Do Patent Reform

Today, CCIA and AAI co-sponsored a great event at the National Press Club, “Scrutinizing Patent Trolls: What Competition Enforcers Are Doing.” If you missed it, you can watch the webcast. FTCU.S. Federal Trade Commission.  An independent regulatory agency charged with consumer protection and competition policy, which conducted several influential studies on how patents work in practice.  Authored several key studies: 2003’s To Promote Innovation: The Proper Balance of Competition and Patent Law and Policy [PDF] and 2011’s The Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition [PDF]. Commissioner Julie Brill gave a terrific keynote address, highlighting the fact that the FTCU.S. Federal Trade Commission.  An independent regulatory agency charged with consumer protection and competition policy, which conducted several influential studies on how patents work in practice.  Authored several key studies: 2003’s To Promote Innovation: The Proper Balance of Competition and Patent Law and Policy [PDF] and 2011’s The Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition [PDF]. was founded 100 years ago and giving a fascinating history of the agency.

Commissioner Brill did give us some news on the FTC’s 6(b) study on [define term=”PAE”]s: the FTCU.S. Federal Trade Commission.  An independent regulatory agency charged with consumer protection and competition policy, which conducted several influential studies on how patents work in practice.  Authored several key studies: 2003’s To Promote Innovation: The Proper Balance of Competition and Patent Law and Policy [PDF] and 2011’s The Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition [PDF]. is aiming to have the study done by the end of 2015. This is definitely faster than many of us expected.

But Commissioner Brill’s main point was that we shouldn’t wait for the study to be concluded before pursuing legislation against PAEs. There’s no question that the PAEPatent Assertion Entity.  A narrower term for trolls that focuses on the core business model rather than whether the entity is actually making use of the patented technology ("working the patent"). problem exists and is getting worse; she made clear that the new Congress should act immediately after taking office.