Newsroom

April 22, 2015

House subpanel approves patent demand letter bill

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday voted 10-7 to advance draft legislation addressing patent demand letters titled, "Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters (TROL) Act."

The Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a mark-up of the bill yesterday. It voted to accept an amendment that mirrors the language in the "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act" for "bona fide mistakes as was suggested by the minority witness at last week's hearing," the subcommittee's statement noted.

Last week, NAFCU reiterated its support for legislation to rein in deceptive patent-assertion entities in a letter ahead of the subcommittee's hearing.

NAFCU, with other financial trade organizations, has presented lawmakers with principles for patent reform to address the issue of demand letters and deceptive patent troll behavior. They include:

  • easing the cost and burdens of patent litigation and making the system more efficient;
  • requiring demand letters to provide more details about the patent and who claims to assert it; and
  • improving the post-grant review of patents, for example, by making permanent the "covered business method" review and making it more usable for smaller entities.

The "TROL Act" now awaits action by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.