H.R. 108 · 116th Congress
Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters Act of 2019
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Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 116th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
R
BurgessSponsor1 cosponsor · 1 R
0 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
A patent demand letter is a written communication claiming that the recipient may be liable for patent infringement. Bad faith means making knowingly false or misleading statements, making claims with reckless disregard for the truth, or omitting information with the intent to deceive.
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in House · Jan 3, 2019
Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters Act of 2019
This bill prohibits sending bad faith patent demand letters.
A patent demand letter is a written communication claiming that the recipient may be liable for patent infringement. Bad faith means making knowingly false or misleading statements, making claims with reckless disregard for the truth, or omitting information with the intent to deceive.
Bad faith representations include false or misleading claims about the sender's right to assert a patent and whether lawsuits have been filed. It also includes making written demands for compensation for invalid patents, or to demand compensation without identifying the ultimate parent entity of the letter sender.
The sender shall have an affirmative defense that it acted in good faith, by proving its misstatements or omissions were unintentional and it made an error in spite of procedures to avoid such errors.
The bill preempts state laws relating to patent assertion communications. The Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general may bring actions to enforce these provisions.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters Act of 2019
Latest action (Jan 25, 2019): Referred to the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.
Policy area: Commerce · Origin: House · Introduced: Jan 3, 2019
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.