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The U.S. Federal Circuit Court Strikes Again, Enabling a New Patent Scam : Patent Marking Trolls

By Andis Kaulins

Lexology - Watch out for the patent marking trolls, March 1, 2010, by Mayer Brown informs us:

"Under Section 292(a) of the Patent Act, marking an unpatented article with intent to deceive the public mandates a fine of ?not more than $500 for every such offense.? In The Forest Group, Inc. v. Bon Tool Co., No. 2009-1044 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 28, 2009), the court construed that provision to require imposition of the fine on a per-article basis (as opposed to a per-decision basis). Thus, a false patent marking on one million individual articles could generate an award of up to $500 million. Any persons can serve as plaintiffs in this ?qui tam? cause of action, whether or not they have an interest in a patent or suffer any personal injury.

The Federal Circuit recognized that its ruling would encourage ?a new cottage industry? of false marking litigation by plaintiffs who have not suffered any direct harm, but it concluded that such a consequence is imposed by the plain language of the statute."

Read the whole thing here.

Our comment: can't they get some judges into the Federal Circuit who have even a minimal understanding of THE LAW - "the law", folks, which consists not merely of statutes but of the sensible application of same.

Full post as published by LawPundit on March 12, 2010 (boomark / email).