With patent litigation cases reaching an all-time high in 2013, exponential growth in the number of filings is on the radar for the heads of large companies, like Tom Sager, general counsel of chemical producer DuPont. Sager is among the ever-expanding roster of GCs that are galvanizing around the issue of non-practicing entities (NPEs), commonly referred to as “patent trolls,” and joining hands with state attorneys general from around the U.S. to diminish the power of NPEs.
In short, patent trolls are companies that buy broadly worded patents, sometimes from firms that go bankrupt, with the intent of suing other companies for illegally infringing on these patents—and they have nothing to lose when they sue others for infringement. While intellectual property is highly valuable to large companies, NPEs are moving away from targeting enterprises by moving downstream to prey on small businesses.
