Panel One: Patent Litigation in the Courts

Speaking on the morning panel, Thomas L. Stoll, 1996, an IP policy specialist with The Boeing Company, noted that so-called patent “trolls,” the pejorative term for patent assertion entities who file frivolous patent suits in order to extract unwarranted settlements, succeed in part because the bewildered targets of their surprise legal actions don’t fully understand the supposed charges against them. Stoll indicate support for a bill before Congress that would mandate the use of claim charts “so defendants could make an educated guess about whether to pay, or whether the charges are bogus.