New DeFazio title - Troll Hunter

Peter DeFazio is on the hunt, his targets are business shakedown artists known as Patent Trolls.

Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced the SHIELD Act, which would create a "loser pays" system for some types of patent litigants. The bill is meant to stymie companies that do nothing more than file patent lawsuits.

You know, people are really smart. It's like regulating Wall Street. You regulate this one product, and they can figure out a new one. But we're trying to have a standard that a normal human—and a judge—could understand.
They could plead at the beginning of the case. Establish the status of the entity that is the plaintiff. And if they come up as a non-practicing entity, or a troll, under these definitions, then they know if they go forward, they're on the hook. We're making [the fee-shifting] mandatory, if the defendant prevails. Last time we left a lot more discretion for the judge. This time we're narrowing that, so it's a clearer message.
The second thing we're also putting in is some bonding. If it's established they are going to be on the hook in this case for the fees, if they don't prevail, then they're going to have to bond.

I previously blogged on a variation of this, copyright trolls who aim their suits at individual consumers who download movies using BitTorrent.  Those Trolls fall into the same category, opportunistic shakedown artists..