Legal Method of Defending against Patent Trolls

Patent troll is a term used for a small-scale inventor holding patents that enforces them against infringers, with no intention to manufacture or market the patented products. Nowadays patents are utilized for the purpose of organizing a portfolio by purchase or strategically infringing upon other inventor's rights by means of patent. Such situation is a kind of fertile grounds for patent trolls. And bad patents with ambiguous extent of patent claims are strong weapons for patent trolls. So far, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ordered an automatic permanent injunction where the patent is valid and its infringement is recognized. Abusing the above practice, patent troll gets the enormous settlement money alleging patent infringement. An attempt to revise the U.S. Patent Act was made as one method of solving the above problem, but it has not been solved yet. Recently the judgment by the U.S. Supreme Court has a significant meaning as legal defense against patent trolls. In the judgment, the U.S. Supreme Court held that four elements could be considered with discretion to order the injunction against the infringement. Discussions on legal methods to prevent patent troll in Korea are geneally summarized as follows ; ① Disscussion as to abuse of rights ② Regulation against abuse of patent rights in accordance with legal theory of litigation trusts ③ Prevention by means of patent investment trusts ④ Establishment of public patent foundation. It is difficult to decide whether the exercise of patent-holder's rights is fair. But, we need to conduct an in-depth examination of whether patent-holder's exercise of rights. From now on, it is necessary for us to prepare clear standards.