White House Developing Plan to Cut Down on Patent Trolling

Litigation stifling innovation

The White House announced steps on Thursday designed to reduce frivolous patent lawsuits by trying to make it easier to identify who owns patents and by updating review processes to ensure that fewer weak patents are granted.

Major technology companies such as Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have for years sought protection against companies that typically do not invent anything, but instead buy or license patents from others and then extract licensing fees or file infringement lawsuits.

Companies have said the increase in such litigation stifles innovation and costs billion of dollars in legal fees.