Like anglers fishing with dynamite, most nonpracticing entities, aka patent trolls, would prefer to target as many defendants as possible in individual patent infringement suits. Multidefendant cases mean less expense for plaintiffs and more settlement-inducing headaches for defendants.
That tactic is mostly history now, thanks to anti-joinder rules in the America Invents Act. But because the joinder provisions don’t apply retroactively, there’s still the pesky issue of what do about the flood of multidefendant cases brought by NPEs just before the AIA became law last September. An East Texas patent fight between an NPE called Lodsys and a host of major IT players could help point the way, with major implications for both plaintiffs and defendants.
