Pay up, patent trolls: New legislation would force failed plaintiffs to pay defendants’ legal bills

Now that judges from around the world are going off on regular rants about the insanity of the current patent system, the United States Congress has actually decided to consider enacting reforms. Ars Technica reports that a new bill introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) would force losing software patent suit plaintifs to pay for the defendants’ legal expenses. The idea behind the legislation is to make patent-holding firms think twice about whether they want to go through with a frivolous lawsuit since they’d have to pay potentially heavy expenses if they lost. Ars Technica describes the chances of the legislation actually passing as “a long shot” for now, so it’s still too early to get excited about any real reforms to the patent system anytime soon.

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