Goodwin Procter LLP Hosts Forum On Non-Practicing Entities -

On October 9, 2013, more than 45 leaders from private practice, industry, government, and academia gathered at the New York office of Goodwin Procter LLP to participate in an invitation-only discussion sponsored by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association on the impact of non-practicing entities on innovation and patent litigation. The question for discussion was “What to do about NPEs: Do We Risk Throwing the Baby out with the Bath Water?”

Framing the Issue -

NYIPLA Past President Mel Garner laid out the issue. NPEs typically acquire and attempt to monetize patents by seeking licensing fees from target companies that allegedly infringe those patented inventions. But the monetization of patent rights is not a new phenomenon. By definition, a patent is transferable personal property that entitles its owner to a bundle of property rights, including the right to exclude third parties and seek damages for their infringement whether or not the patent enforcer has a competing product. Jerome H. Lemelson is an early example of an inventor and entrepreneur who sued countless companies, ultimately obtaining more than $1 billion in license fees over the decades. And many large companies, for example Texas Instruments and IBM, license their patent holdings and garner revenues that can exceed that from product sales.