GAO Issues Report on Patent “Troll” Litigation

by: Robert Wagner, intellectual property attorney at Picadio Sneath Miller & Norton, P.C. (Robert Wagner on G+)

Last Thursday, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on patent infringement litigation and recommended steps that may be taken to improve both litigation and the patents themselves. The 61-page report, entitled “INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: Assessing Factors That Affect Patent Infringement Litigation Could Help Improve Patent Quality,” makes a number of recommendations, as well as providing a background in this area, including statistics summarizing recent trends in patent litigation.

We’ll be taking a look at this report in more detail and providing some commentary on it in the near future as a part of our ongoing analysis of the issues presented by NPE/PAE/patent troll litigation.