On Monday May 2, the National Academies of Science officially released its long-awaited study of  “copyright in the digital age.” The paper spends considerable time discussing and praising the important role that empirical data from various patent studies played in consideration and passage of the American Invents Act.  We could not agree more.  The data from these studies demonstrated the need for patent reform to address the significant problems caused by patent trolls.  The AIA was an essential step in addressing these problems but the problems have gotten worse and have morphed– and the data has backed this up.  In a 2011 study, James Bessen and Mike Meurer concluded that that lawsuits by patent trolls are associated with half a trillion dollars of lost wealth to defendants from 1990 through 2010.  In a study in 2012, they estimate the direct costs to defendants arising from patent troll litigation at $29 billion in 2011. The GAO study on the economic effects of patent trolls – mandated by Congress in the AIA will be released soon.  It is likely that this study will also demonstrate that additional patent reforms are needed to address the troll problem.

There does not appear to be any “silver bullet” solution to this problem.  SIIA and its members are looking at a variety of different approaches to address the problem.  But the need for such reforms is solidly supported by neutral empirical economic research.

The NAS paper is not about patent reform.  It’s about the need for empirical data on copyright.  We support the conclusions of the NAS paper – that more empirical data on import at copyright issues is needed.  It is imperative that such data be generated by unbiased neutral parties.  Empirical data on such issues as licensing efficiencies, enforcement problems and data and text mining, to name just a few, would go a long way to providing a better understanding of the role that copyright plays in these issues and whether and what type of copyright reforms might be necessary or appropriate.  As House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte considers a series of hearings to explore the extent of possible reforms, SIIA urges that comprehensive changes be based to the greatest extent possible an empirical foundation.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

Google Lobbies Against Patent Privateering (CNET)
Google has banded together with BlackBerry, EarthLink, and Red Hat to submit comments to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in an effort to expose the industry-wide consequences of patent privateering, or the practice of companies outsourcing patent enforcement to independent entities with no technologies of their own.

Patent Trolls Launched Majority of U.S. Patent Cases in 2012 (CNET)
A new study has found that more than half of last year’s patent litigation cases in the U.S. were filed by companies that license patents but don’t have another business.

Did Anti-Piracy Laws Improve Revenue in New Zealand or Japan? (Billboard)
New Zealand and Japan, the two newest countries to adopt anti-piracy laws, had mixed results on the laws’ impact in 2012, according to data in the IFPI’s new Recording Industry in Numbers 2013 report.

Russia Says File-Sharers Will Not Be Held Liable for Piracy (TorrentFreak)
Russia says it will not proceed with holding Internet users liable for downloads, but it does intend to take a tougher stance with infringing sites.

Lawsuit Attempts to Use Six-Strikes Copyright System in Case Against Verizon Subscriber (SlashGear)
Malibu Media is pursuing a case against a Verizon subscriber over alleged sharing of copyrighted materials, and has subpoenaed Verizon for copies of the six-strike notices the subscriber received under the new Copyright Alert System.

Quarter of UK Adults Can’t Tell Piracy Websites Apart From the ‘Real Deal’ (The Drum)
A YouGov survey of over 2,000 British adults revealed that nearly a quarter were unable to tell the difference between piracy websites and de-branded legitimate pages.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.