Engine and the Electronic Frontier Foundation join with more than 60 entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators to ask the House Judiciary Committee to take action on patent trolls. Our call to action supports the reintroduction of Congressman Peter Defazio’s SHIELD Act, a measure aimed at reducing costly litigation created by non-practicing entities. We’re encouraging Congress to consider legislation that helps protect startups from litigation that stifles economic growth.
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of reddit; Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson of Foundry Group; Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures, and David Cohen, founder and CEO of TechStars are among the individuals who signed on to the letter.
Today’s letter demonstrates agreement in the innovation and investment communities on the harmful nature of litigation to companies across the country. Find the full text of the letter below.
Dear Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers,
We, the undersigned, write today as entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators in support of the Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act and other legislative measures aimed at reducing costly litigation created by non-practicing entities, often referred to as patent trolls. Congress should consider measures that shift incentives away from those who game the system and toward an innovative economy and competitive market.
As President Obama acknowledged earlier this month, patent trolls, “essentially leverage and hijack” patents originally issued to others in an effort to “extort” money through litigation. Young, innovative companies are increasingly targets of these lawsuits. While big companies paid much of the $29 billion in direct costs resulting from activities by patent trolls in 2011, the costs made up a larger share of small companies’ revenue. In fact, the majority of companies targeted by patent trolls have less than $10 million in revenue.
Without startups, there would have been no net job growth in the United States over the last two decades. Congress needs to make measures like the SHIELD Act a priority in 2013 so that innovative companies and entrepreneurs can continue to grow without the threats posed by non-practicing entities. Congress must take action and fix the patent troll problem. We urge the committee to call hearings on patent troll litigation and to solicit information from the innovation community at-large.
Sincerely,
Nathan Allen
Four First Names
Luis Arbulu
Hattery
Joen Asmussen
Automattic Inc.
Seth Bannon
Amicus
James R Bazet
Cobra Electronics Corporation
Matthew Bellows
Yesware, Inc
Paul Berberian
Orbotix, Inc.
Aaron N. Block
BayRu LLC
Matthew Y. Blumberg
Return Path, Inc.
Brad Burnham
Union Square Ventures
David Cohen
TechStars
Jessica Cole
Roammeo, Inc.
Dave Copps
PureDiscovery
Mark Cuban
Dallas Mavericks
Rutul Davè
Bright Funds, Inc.
Pete Davies
Automattic Inc
Christian Dawson
Internet Infrastructure Coalition
Derek Dukes
Dipity
Mat Ellis
Cloudability
Edward Engler
Pittsburgh Equity Partners
Tim Enwall
Mobiplug Networks, Inc
Brad Feld
Foundry Group
Rand Fishkin
SEOmoz
Chris Franks
Moblify
William Randolph Fry
Fry’s Electronics, Inc.
Nick Hamze
Automattic Inc.
Erick Hitter
Automattic Inc
Trenidad Hubbard
Game Face Sports International, LLC
Terry Floyd Johnson
Showdown Royal
Jeevan Kalanithi
Sifteo
Seth Levine
Foundary Group
John Levisay
Sympoz Inc.
Benjamin Lewis
The MadCelt Studios
David Mandell
PivotDesk
Michael Masnick
Floor64, Inc.
Ryan McIntyre
Foundry Group
Josh Mendelsohn
Hattery
Jason Mendelson
Foundry Group
David Merrill
Sifteo
Jesse Miller
Attachments.me
Christopher Neumann
Datahero, Inc.
George Northup
Memeo Inc.
Ethan Rishon Oberman
SpiderOak, Inc.
Alexis Ohanian
reddit
Scott Petry
Authentic8
Daniel Pidgeon
Starpower
Lamar Porter
CIKI, Inc.
Ian C Rogers
Daisy, A Beats by Dre Company
Toni Schneider
Automattic Inc.
Paul Sieminski
Automattic Inc
Keith Lloyd Smith
BigDoor
Jesse Suchmann
DIGITAS
Steven Tiffen
The Tiffen Company
Joshua To
Hattery
Max Uhlenhuth
SilviaTerra
Elizabeth Urello
Automattic Inc
Alexander Shalek White
Next Big Sound
Victor Wong
PaperG
Skylar Woodward
Trumo, Inc.
Adam Wooley
Brute Labs
Gary Yacoubian
Specialty Technologies, LLC dba SVS
Jun Zhang
Vercury Inc.
