One Judge’s Mission To Unearth Who Is Behind These Patent Trolls | Farella Braun + Martel LLP
Judge Colm Connolly in the District of Delaware has been pressing many of the patent trolls (LLCs that only own 1 asset – the asserted patent with nominal managers who are just strawmen) who sue in his court to reveal the identity of their actual funders and litigation decisionmakers. This has led some patent trolls to stop filing in Delaware and others to dismiss their cases before Judge Connolly, and then, the nominal managers refuse to show up to Judge Connolly’s ordered hearings. One such entity and nominal manager appealed Judge Connolly’s orders to the Federal Circuit, and yesterday, the Federal Circuit approved Judge Connolly’s right to fine the nominal manager and LLC $200 a day for refusing to show up to court and answer questions about who are the actual funders and litigation decisionmakers. If more judges in the popular patent dockets (Texas and Delaware) take such aggressive stances around a plaintiff’s corporate disclosure requirement, it would significantly reduce the number of patent troll cases that plague the court system.
A precedential ruling from the Federal Circuit on Tuesday found that Delaware’s top judge has the right to fine a Texas paralegal who is the sole owner of patent litigation outfit Backertop Licensing LLC $200 a day for refusing to show up in court as part of the judge’s investigation into whether Backertop and others hid their connection to big-name intellectual property consulting firm IP Edge.
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