Oregon Senate unanimously votes to ban patent trolling

Patent trolling would be banned under a bill that unanimously cleared the Oregon Senate on Friday. Senate Bill 1540 would make patent trolling a violation of Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act. The bill would also allow an individual or business targeted by a patent troll to sue and recover attorneys’ fees. Patent trolls are companies that buy often obscure patents and threaten lawsuits against hundreds or even thousands of people and businesses. 

The senate in the State of Oregon passed a bill on February 14, 2014 that adds a ban on patent trolling in accordance to Senate Bill 1540 had overwhelming support in the senate with a 30-0 with no abstaining votes. The bill will now be passed to the House Judiciary Committee for review. The bill, sponsored by Senator Jackie Winters R-Salem, would “prohibit person or person’s affiliate from communicating demands to recipient if in demand person or affiliate alleges, asserts or claims in bad faith that the recipient has infringed or contributed to infringing patent or rights that patent, assignee or licensee has under patent.” The prosecuting attorney in these patent suits would then have to determine that the targeted party has acted in bad faith for them to proceed as well as provided proper documentation regarding specific violations and findings to the party while acting in good faith on their own over previous defense of the patents in question.