The FTC should move forward with its proposed...

The FTC should move forward with its proposed study of the business practices of patent assertion entities (PAEs), Public Knowledge said Monday in comments it filed jointly with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Engine Advocacy. The FTC voted in late September to propose doing a study using its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act (CD Sept 30 p15). Comments on the proposed study were due Monday. The proposed study would “bring many of these unseen practices to light, by requiring those entities to disclose relevant information about their business practices,” Public Knowledge said. “With this information, the FTC will take a first step in discovering and uncovering the true extent of the impact of patent assertion abuses on today’s economy.” The Software & Information Industry Association said it “strongly” supports the proposed study, which would “add significantly to the existing literature and evidence on PAE behavior.” There have been other studies on PAE activities, but they have focused on available litigation data, said SIIA. The FTC’s proposed study “has the opportunity to be much different and to provide a more complete picture of the PAE landscape and its detrimental effects due to the FTC’s unique Congressional authority to collect nonpublic information,” SIIA said. “Certain licensing agreements, patent acquisition information, and cost and revenue data that was not available to researchers in prior studies would be potentially available to the FTC” (http://1.usa.gov/1bUz6jC).