Posts Tagged: "Eric Schneiderman"

NY Attorney General Settles Investigation into Patent Troll

MPHJ employed a strategy of targeting small and medium-sized businesses, which in and of itself is not legally problematic. The fact that MPHJ acquired patents of dubious validity is interesting, but again, patents are presumed valid, so that is not terribly probative either. The problem with the MPHJ strategy is that it was deceptive. They sent out letters to a large number of small businesses in an effort to extract small, nuisance-value license payments from them. Indeed, some patent trolls seek far less than even a fair nuisance-value, asking for $500 or $1,000. It is this type of behavior that is the hallmark of a patent troll. The mere fact that one has acquired patents and seeks to license them is in and of itself irrelevant because that activity is completely legal. In the letters sent by MPHJ hundreds of New York businesses were told that it was “likely” that they were infringing MPHJ patents and, therefore, needed to take a patent license. By saying that they were “likely” infringing an impression was created that MPHJ had conducted at least some kind of individualized analysis of the targeted company’s business. But MPHJ did no investigation, choosing merely sent out form letters in bulk to companies of a certain size and industry classification.