Political Quotes

“This amendment strikes a key provision of the bill for retailers, restaurants, and grocery stores, among others. This provision is the product of years of discussion with stakeholders and the Patent Office. This section codifies and provides for the enforcement of the common law doctrine that infringement suits against a customer, retailer, or user of an infringing product should be stayed in favor of an action against the manufacturer of the allegedly infringing product. Customers and retailers typically are ill-suited to defend against an infringement suit. They often are not familiar with the inner workings of the product and usually have no reason to know whether or not the product infringes a valid patent. Suits against such parties are inherently coercive and have become a tactic employed by patent trolls. {time} 1115 As an infamous recent example, one troll has begun suing cafes, restaurants, and shops that provide wireless Internet access to their customers via routers that they bought off the shelf. These small shops have no idea how the routers work or why they infringe, and they have often paid as little as $40 for them. Now they are being sued for using allegedly infringing products and are being asked to pay thousands of dollars. The troll could have sued the manufacturer but chose not to because the manufacturer would have vigorously defended against the suit.…”