The United States Supreme Court ruled Monday that a law introduced in 2011 to make it easier to defeat trolls was legal.

Under the Patent Office Regulations companies targeted by patent trolls could contest claims in front of the Patent Office instead of a federal judge, making the dispute resolution process both quicker and easier.

Patent trolls however hate the rule, claiming that their inability to appear before a court denies them due process, although as is usually the modus operandi with patent trolls what they really mean is that by not being able to drag a case before a court they were less likely to obtain a settlement from companies who were looking to avoid the excessive legal costs involved in a court hearing.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Supreme Court case involved a company by the name of  Cuozzo Speed Technologies LLC that claimed a patent for an invention for alerting drivers when they are speeding (seriously); GPS technology company Garmin challenged the patent at the Patent Office, “which invalidated the Cuozzo patent after concluding its claims weren’t innovative when viewed against other prior technologies.”

Cuzzo Speed Technologies argued that the Patent Office process denied them due process, however, the Supreme Court found that while the Patent Office rules were different than those used by the court, the agency had taken a reasonable approach in its consideration of Garmin’s challenge to Cuzzo’s patent.

Justice Stephen Breyer said in his findings that the Patent Office approach “helps to protect the public” by preventing individuals and companies from claiming overly broad patents that “might discourage the use of the invention by a member of the public.”

Winning

The ruling will be particularly beneficial to tech companies such as Apple, Inc. and Alphabet, Inc. who are regularly challenged by patent trolls over even the most trivial of allegedly patented technologies.

Since the introduction of the Patent Office regulations, a reported 80 percent of hearings completed so far have seen the cancellation of the patent in question, hence giving more insight as to why patent trolls are attempting to have the rules changed to how they stood prior in 2011.

While the regulations as they stand now are an improvement to the pre-2011 rules, what they don’t do is go far enough with preventing patent trolling to begin with, but for tech companies, in particular, any win is a good win on the subject of patent trolling.

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