Summary: The cautionary tale of the US patent system, where a lot of today's legal 'action' involves firms that produce and invent nothing, preying on those that do

THE patent trolls' capital, better known as the Eastern District of Texas, is in the news again because of some new numbers from Lex Machina, which we cited here dozens of times before. WIPR says that "The number of patent complaints filed at Texas district courts reached a record level in November [...] total number of complaints filed was 851. [...] Lex Machina said the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas accounted for the majority of the complaints, with 467 being filed in the jurisdiction. Most of the filings were made between November 22 and 30."

"More than half of the complaints, many of which from patent trolls without a doubt, were filed in the Eastern District of Texas."Got that? More than half of the complaints, many of which from patent trolls without a doubt, were filed in the Eastern District of Texas. What does this tell us or remind us?

In other timely news, "High Quality Printing Inventions" (LLC, which suggests non-practicing) becomes the latest parasite to attack companies that basically print things. To quote this new article: "A recently-formed Delaware-based limited liability company called High Quality Printing Inventions, LLC, has been filing patent infringement cases in the U.S. District Courts in a litigation campaign against several printing companies using common web-to-print functionality. It appears that High Quality Printing Inventions is a non-practicing entity, a patent troll, formed for the sole purpose of seeking royalty payments.

"Well, as we warned here before, Benoît Battistelli's EPO threatens to bring the same kind of 'economy' to Europe.""The patent includes 20 claims covering web-enabled print systems that include product specification and design interfaces that utilize templated documents to create mass-customized business forms or brochures. The patent is US Patent 6012070:A Digital design station procedure. The claims describe common functionally of systems that many printing companies have offered in web-to-print storefronts, collateral management and e-commerce platforms for years."

Well, as we warned here before, Benoît Battistelli's EPO threatens to bring the same kind of 'economy' to Europe. To some degree, it is already happening. ⬆