The Federal Trade Commission has used its subpoena power to look inside the workings of 22 patent assertion entities (PAEs), companies in the business of holding, licensing and enforcing patents. The commission published 269 pages of findings and recommendations Oct. 6, including a call for new federal rules requiring earlier disclosure of infringement and damages contentions. The commission also noted the heavy concentration of PAE litigation in Eastern Texas, Delaware and a few other judicial districts. The Recorder checked in with Seth Sproul, a San Diego-based partner in Fish & Richardson’s patent litigation group, for his takeaways from the FTC’s report.
The FTC says it issued this report to inform the public dialogue about PAEs. Do you see new information in the report that might help do that?
