Narratives and evidence in the litigation of high-tech patents

Published: June 16, 2009Posted in: business, intellectual property, law, patents, recommendationsTags: , , , , ,

Colleen Chien has a paper in SSRN, dated April of 2009, that explores the nar­ra­tive of patents, from the epi­thet of “troll” applied to patent own­ers who seek only to lever­age their patent through licens­ing, and not appli­ca­tion, and includ­ing our rather roman­tic per­cep­tion of an inventor:

While each patent dis­pute is unique, most fit the pro­file of one of a lim­ited num­ber of patent lit­i­ga­tion sto­ries. A dis­pute between an inde­pen­dent inven­tor and a large com­pany, for instance, is often cast in “David v. Goliath” terms. When two large com­pa­nies fight over patents, in con­trast, they are said to be play­ing the “sport of kings.” Some cor­po­ra­tions engage in “defen­sive patent­ing” in order to deter oth­ers from suing them. Patent licens­ing and enforce­ment enti­ties who sue have been labeled “trolls.” Finally, observers of the patent sys­tem call the use of patent lit­i­ga­tion to impose or exploit finan­cial dis­tress “patent predation.”

These sto­ries, rou­tinely invoked by the press, advo­cates, and aca­d­e­mics, shape pub­lic under­stand­ing of the patent sys­tem. In this Article, I describe, then match, these sto­ries to data on patent lit­i­ga­tions to deter­mine which types of suits are most preva­lent. I focus exclu­sively on the lit­i­ga­tion of high-​​tech patents, cov­er­ing hard­ware, soft­ware, and finan­cial inven­tions, using data from the Stanford Intellectual Property Clearinghouse for cases ini­ti­ated in U.S. District Courts from January 2000 through March 2008.

via SSRN — Of Trolls, Davids, Goliaths, and Kings: Narratives and Evidence in the Litigation of High-​​Tech Patents by Colleen Chien.

Recommended read­ing for any­one inter­ested in how our soci­ety, includ­ing the press, speaks about the patent system

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