Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The End of False-Marking Trolls

The recent passage of the America Invents Act (AIA) has taken the steam out of the recent frenzy of patent false-marking suits by eliminating any risk for leaving expired patent numbers on covered products. (See the text of 35 USC § 292 below). It is still a violation to falsely mark a product as patented, but the high standard for proving intent to deceive the public remains. Furthermore, so-called false-marking trolls cannot take advantage of the statute because only the United States or a party that has suffered "competitive injury" as a result of false marking can bring suit.