Ted Poe: “I thank the chairman for yielding. Not all lawsuits in the patent business are done by trolls, but some are, and these…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Not all lawsuits in the patent business are done by trolls, but some are, and these are obvious frivolous lawsuits on their face. The first time it appears in the system is when that small business owner gets that demand letter in the mail, and it is nothing more than legalized extortion where the letter basically says, You will settle for $10,000 or we will sue you and it will cost you more money to defend yourself; settle. What small business owners do, they are faced with that, many of them settle or they go out of business. That is what this legislation tries to prevent, the extortion racket in the patent infringement business, and it is done by some people that we call trolls. This legislation protects the small business owner. It gets the troll, the frivolous lawsuit folks out of the extortion racket early on in the system. That is why this piece of legislation is good for small business, and that is why it is good for the patent industry. And that's just the way it is.”