Washington, D.C. (December 5, 2013) – Today, the Application Developers Alliance praised House passage of the Innovation Act. The patent reform legislation, introduced by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), passed the House today by an overwhelming bipartisan majority.
“House passage of the Innovation Act is a victory for app developer creators and innovators, who too often are road kill for patent trolls,” said Jon Potter, President of the App Developers Alliance. “Innovators and inventors large and small will benefit from the bill’s reforms. We thank Chairman Goodlatte for his leadership and the many members of Congress who worked to pass this important legislation.”
During the debate, Representatives Lee Terry (R-NE), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and Chairman Goodlatte engaged in a colloquy supporting further action in the House Energy and Commerce Committee on patent troll demand letters, and an amendment offered by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) was adopted to require trolls to provide additional disclosures in demand letters.
“Patent trolls’ favorite way to bully companies into paying licensing fees is to send vague and threatening demand letters. The letters often lack the basic information needed to determine if infringement has occurred,” said Jon Potter. “We are encouraged by the overwhelming support for increasing transparency in demand letters from Chairman Goodlatte and members including Representatives Lee Terry, Jason Chaffetz, Jared Polis, Gerry Connolly, Tom Marino, and others. We look forward to working with them as demand letter reform moves forward,” said Potter.
The Alliance will continue to work in support of the bill and to add important provisions to further protect innovators as it moves through the Senate, including demand letter reform and a cheaper, faster, administrative alternative for innovators to invalidate bad patents.
About the Application Developers Alliance
The Application Developers Alliance is an industry association dedicated to meeting the unique needs of application developers as creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Alliance members include more than 30,000 individual application developers and more than 150 companies, investors, and stakeholders in the apps ecosystem.
