Two U.S. congressmen, Representative Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. and Representative Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced legislation (HR 6245, the Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes Act, or SHIELD Act), in the U.S. House of Representatives on August 1. The SHIELD Act seeks to dissuade nonpracticing entity patent owners (“NPEs,” or sometimes derogatorily called “patent trolls”) from filing patent infringement lawsuits that do “not have a reasonable likelihood of succeeding” against computer hardware and software companies by awarding costs and attorney fees to the accused infringer. The purported goal of the SHIELD Act is to discourage NPEs from filing “frivolous” lawsuits in the high-tech industry:
“Patent trolls often buy broad patents that allow them to file flimsy lawsuits against multiple companies for infringement. Despite very thin evidence to back their lawsuits, companies are often forced to settle because going to court can easily cost over $1 million in legal costs, even if the company prevails. Patent trolls most often target software and computer hardware companies. According to a recent Boston University study, patent troll suits cost American technology companies over $29 billion in 2011 alone,” according to a press release from DeFazio regarding the SHIELD Act.
