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Cat voices support for patent legislation

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Caterpillar Inc. on Thursday expressed its support for a bill that would create laws to help Illinois companies protect their intellectual property and is now awaiting Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature.

Caterpillar officials were joined at a news conference by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan urging support of the bill, which her office drafted as a way to protect Illinois business from “patent trolls.”

“We need better protections for business owners facing fraudulent and costly demands from patent trolls,” Madigan said during the news conference at Caterpillar’s Tech Center in Mossville. “This legislation will put a stop to these abusive practices while ensuring legitimate patent holders maintain their ability to pursue infringement claims.”

Senate Bill 3405 was drafted and passed with assistance from Caterpillar representatives and other business and consumer protection advocates. The legislation was carefully crafted so that it cracks down on patent trolls that have sent thousands of misleading demand letters to businesses demanding licensing payments or threatening legal action for supposedly violating a patent, while at the same time ensuring the measure does not limit the rights of legitimate patent holders such as Caterpillar and other manufacturers and retailers in Illinois.

“We want to ensure that legitimate good faith patent communications can continue, while at the same time inhibit the sending of patent demand letters in bad faith,” said Jim Blass, director of Product Validation for Product Development and Global Technology at Caterpillar. “The bill crafted by the Attorney General accomplishes that goal.”

Caterpillar was perhaps the most vocal of Illinois-based companies in stating the belief that Illinois is not business-friendly and the lack of protection for patent owners was but one of the reasons cited by Caterpillar Chairman Doug Oberhelman and other Caterpillar representatives in the past couple years.

In their demand letters, patent trolls fail to disclose basic information, including the actual owner of the alleged patent and the circumstances surrounding any alleged infringement. Identical letters have been sent to thousands of businesses and often falsely threaten litigation even though the patent trolls have no intention of filing lawsuits. In some cases, patent trolls have targeted businesses for simply purchasing office supply products in the commercial market.

This legislation would ban patent demand letters that:

  • Contain false or deceptive information;
  • Are sent by individuals who do not have the right to license or enforce a patent;
  • Falsely threaten litigation if a fee is not paid; and
  • Fail to identity the individual asserting the patent and explain the alleged infringement.

The deadline to sign the bill into law is August 26. The bill was sponsored by State Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, and State Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago.

Also working with Madigan’s office and bill sponsors to pass the legislation were the following groups: Community Bankers Association of Illinois, Illinois Press Association, Illinois Credit Union League, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Illinois CPA Society, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, Home Builders Association of Illinois, Illinois Association of Realtors, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

 

About the Author
Paul Gordon is the editor of The Peorian after spending 29 years of indentured servitude at the Peoria Journal Star. He’s an award-winning writer, raconteur and song-and-dance man. He also went to a high school whose team name is the Alices (that’s Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana; you can look it up).