Today, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduced the Transparency in Assertion of Patents Act. The bill will limit the abusive sending of demand letters by providing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the tools needed to combat deceptive practices. Public Knowledge testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee several months ago, calling for transparency and consumer disclosure reforms to level the playing field for small businesses.
The following can be attributed to Charles Duan, Director of Public Knowledge's Patent Reform Project:
“Abusive patent assertion is a problem for our nation's innovators and economy. Many of the companies who are threatened with patent assertion are small businesses and startups, who often lack the resources to engage in litigation to vindicate their rights.
“Senator McCaskill's bill implements many of the reforms that we advocated in our testimony at the hearing. We are pleased that she is showing commitment to solving this important issue that is affecting innovators and businesses, and we look forward to working with the Senator, the Committee, and other legislators.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.