Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters Act of 2019
Latest action · Jan 25, 2019 Referred to the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJan 3, 2019
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
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.
Cosponsors 1
Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Jul 10, 2019.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-OH | Steve Stivers | Jul 10, 2019 |
Actions 3
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jan 25, 2019Referred to the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.
- Jan 3, 2019Introduced in House
- Jan 3, 2019Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Related bills 2
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S 2082 | STRONGER Patents Act of 2019 | Related bill | Jul 10, 2019 |
| HR 3666 | STRONGER Patents Act of 2019 | Related bill | Jul 30, 2019 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Commerce.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jan 3, 2019Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.