FSR’s 4 Questions Both Trump and Hillary Should Answer About Patent Trolls

Washington, D.C.—The Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) today called on the presidential candidates to detail their plans on how they will protect inventions and innovation from patent trolls.

To better protect inventions and innovation from patent trolls FSR supports making permanent the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) Covered Business Method (CBM) program. The CBM program has been especially helpful to the financial industry, whose business methods are increasingly frequent targets for patent trolls. Patent litigation against financial services companies alone is up almost 290% from 2009 to 2013.FSR outlined 4 questions the candidates should answer:

1.  The next president will appoint the new director of the patent and trademark office (PTO). What qualities and background would you seek in such an appointee?

2.  Do you see patent reform as an economic priority for your administration and how will you engage congress to achieve success?

3.  How do you plan to address patent trolls increasing attacks on businesses, large and small, with low-quality intellectual property?

4.  The Covered Business Method program, which allows the PTO to review the validity of low-quality patents, is set to sunset.  This program provides a low-cost, efficient alternative to litigation for a universe of patent lawsuits.  How can we best work with your administration to extend the duration of this critical program?

FSR is engaging the candidates on protecting inventions and innovation from patent trolls as a part of its 2016 Presidential Focus Series, an advocacy initiative to highlight issues on which the presidential candidates should focus as they campaign for the Presidency.

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