PTAB is key to check Chinese patent lead

The PTAB has helped hold patent trolling back, cutting costs and increasing U.S. business activity by  since Congress created it. Unfortunately, the PREVAIL Act would erode public access to patent quality review by erecting unnecessary barriers to challenging bad patents.

Sound policy should be grounded in data. It is important to correct the record on a few of the most misleading narratives from the hearing, before lawmakers do anything to advance policies that would once again leave innovative American companies vulnerable to wasteful lawsuits.  

First, the PREVAIL Act would weaken, not strengthen, our ability to compete with foreign adversaries like China.

PREVAIL’s advocates  that the bill is necessary to remain competitive with adversaries like China. Restricting public access to efficient patent quality checks would give foreign competitors more opportunities to rack up their own patents and assert them in U.S. courts, while preventing challenges to poor-quality patents owned by foreign adversaries.

Patent challengers are mostly American companies. And patents being challenged are often owned by foreign entities or linked to litigation funders that can include sovereign wealth funds and other overseas investors. Petitioners based in China, on average, account for less than  of all PTAB filings; meanwhile, entities based in China file for tens of thousands of U.S. patents each year and their quality is . 

The PREVAIL Act would limit the protections strategically important U.S. industries have against baseless patent troll lawsuits — including those  by investors in China and elsewhere.