Trolls

It has been a little more than half a year since the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure abrogated Rule 84 and put an end to the Form 18 bare-bones style patent complaint.

This month, three United States Senators introduced the “Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act of 2016.” The bill would dramatically narrow the venue statute that applies to patent cases and, it appears, prevent most cases from being litigated in the popular venues for patent cases, such as the Eastern District of Texas.

Non-practicing entity plaintiffs beware and NPE defendants be delighted: sanctions for objectively unreasonable claims and conduct are alive and well.

On October 1, 2013, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases dealing with the fee-shifting provision in patent cases: Highmark Inc. v. Allcare Health Management Systems (No. 12-1163) and Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness, Inc. (No. 12-1184).