The PATENT and Innovation Acts – Targeting Patent Troll Abuses – Voted to the Floor of the Senate and House with More Work to be Done

Patent reform legislation targeting patent trolls continues to move forward as the Senate’s PATENT Act, introduced into the Senate at the end of April, was voted out of Committee and to the Senate floor by a 16-4 vote on Thursday, June 4, 2015; and the Innovation Act, introduced into the House of Representatives in February was voted to the House Floor by a 24-8 vote on Thursday, June 11, 2015. As we reported at the end of April, multiple bills have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate this year targeting litigation and pre-litigation tactics often employed by patent trolls. These bills include the TROL Act, targeting abusive patent demand letters; the STRONG Patents Act, addressing post-grant proceedings and abusive patent demand letters; and the two omnibus bills, the Innovation Act and the PATENT Act.