PATENT Act

S.1137: Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act (2015) (Congress)

• Pleading and early disclosure: must identify each claim of each patent allegedly infringed and which products or processes are infringing
• Discovery limits: requires a court to stay expensive discovery pending resolution of preliminary motions
• Fees and recovery: provides that reasonable attorney fees will be awarded if the court finds that the non-prevailing party was not objectively reasonable
• Disclosure of patent ownership: requires patent holders to disclose to the PTO whenever there is an assignment of interest in the patent that results in a change of ultimate parent entity
• Small business provisions: directs PTO to develop educational resources for businesses targeted by patent suits and to create a list of pending patent cases on its website