Carving Out State Protections in Patent Enforcement

We have previously posted on proposed federal and state legislation aimed at addressing the toll of patent troll litigation on the U.S. economy. To date, twenty-five states have passed or are considering legislation aimed at curbing bad-faith patent assertion through state law, either based in consumer protection or through laws directed at bad business practices. From Vermont, one of the first states to adopt such legislation, MPHJ Technology Investments LLC (“MPHJ”), an alleged patent troll, seeks the opinion of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the issue of federal patent law preemption.