The House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee will...

The House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee will take up a bill to curb misleading or inadequate patent demand letters Wednesday afternoon, said a Monday news release (http://1.usa.gov/U0T7Q6). Subcommittee Chairman Lee Terry, R-Neb., released an updated draft of the Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters Act (HR-4450) Monday(http://1.usa.gov/1n4Ljn3). The bill would make patent demand letters written in “bad faith” an “unfair or deceptive act” under the FTC Act. “We have spent months examining different ideas and challenges to address the growing threat of patent trolls, and the text we will consider this week is a product of those discussions amongst members and stakeholders,” said Terry in a statement. The updated draft is not significantly different from the original discussion draft (CD July 3 p9), but did name the measure. The bill is one small component of broader patent revamp legislation that has been all but booted until after the midterm elections, which may make passage of a demand letter bill difficult, stakeholders have agreed (CD May 23 p3).