The Defensive Patent Playbook

THE DEFENSIVE PATENT PLAYBOOK James M. Rice † Billionaire entrepreneur Naveen Jain wrote that “[s]uccess doesn’t necessarily come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won’t win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling.”1 Companies with innovative ideas must execute patent strategies effectively to navigate the current patent landscape. But in order to develop a defensive strategy, practitioners must appreciate the development of the defensive patent playbook. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”2 Congress attempts to promote technological progress by granting patent rights to inventors. Under the utilitarian theory of patent law, patent rights create economic incentives for inventors by providing exclusivity in exchange for public disclosure of technology.3 The exclusive right to make, use, import, and sell a technology incentivizes innovation by enabling inventors to recoup the costs of development and secure profits in the market.4 Despite the conventional theory, in the 1980s and early 1990s, numerous technology companies viewed patents as unnecessary and chose not to file for patents.5 In 1990, Microsoft had seven utility patents.6 Cisco © 2015 James M. Rice. † J.D. Candidate, 2016, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. 1. Naveen Jain, 10 Secrets of Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur, INC. (Aug. 13, 2012), http://www.inc.com/naveen-jain/10-secrets-of-becoming-a-successfulentrepreneur.html. 2. U.S. CONST. art. 1 § 8, cl. 8. 3. See Edmund W. Kitch, The Nature and Function of the Patent System, 20 J.L. & ECON. 265, 266 (1977). 4. See Mark A. Lemley, Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Justifications for Intellectual Property, 71 U. CHI. L. REV. 129, 129–30 (2004). 5. See Colleen V. Chien, From Arms Race to Marketplace: The Complex Patent Ecosystem and Its Implications for the Patent System, 62 HASTINGS L.J. 297, 302–03 (2010) [hereinafter Chien, From Arms Race to Marketplace]. 726 BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 30:385 filed for one patent between 1984 and 1993.7 Oracle opposed software patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) hearings in 1994.8 While these companies were not representative of the entire market, companies did not file patents to the extent seen today.9 Multiple factors in the patent landscape caused a dramatic shift in the use of the patent system. First, the Federal Circuit situated the patent system for rapid growth through significant reversals of patent denials by the PTO.10 With the patent system primed for growth, Texas Instruments (“TI”) and International Business Machines (“IBM”) catalyzed a patent aggregation “arms race” that increased patent filings industry-wide.11 As a result, webs of fragmented and overlapping patent rights, called patent thickets, developed in many innovative areas.12 After the dot-com bubble collapsed, non-practicing entities (“NPEs”) emerged on the patent playing field.13 Patent thickets and aggressive litigation by non-practicing entities turned the patent system on its head.14 As a result, companies developed an array of defensive options and strategies to counter the changing use of patents. However, the tactics 6. This number resulted from a search for “Microsoft” as assignee on the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office’s website. See Patent Full-Text and Image Database, http://patft.uspto.gov (last visited Nov. 19, 2014). 7. Competition and Intellectual Property Law and Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy: Joint Hearings Before the Fed. Trade Comm’n & Dep’t of Justice 673–74 (Feb. 28, 2002) (statement of Robert Barr, Vice President for Intellectual Property and Worldwide Patent Counsel, Cisco Systems, Inc.), available at http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/ documents/public_events/competition-ip-law-policy-knowledge-based-economyhearings/020228ftc.pdf. 8. Public Hearing on Use of the Patent System to Protect Software-Related Inventions: Before Bruce A. Lehman, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, USPTO 140 (1994) (statement of Jerry Baker, Senior Vice President, Oracle Corp.) (“I cannot find any evidence that patents for software will tend to [promote technological progress]. Indeed, every indication is to the contrary.”), available at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/hearings/software/sanjose/sjhrng.pdf. 9. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”), there were 176,264 patent filings in 1990, compared to 609,052 in 2013. PATENT TECHNOLOGY MONITORING TEAM, U.S. PATENT & TRADEMARK OFFICE, U.S. PATENT AND STATISTICS CHART, CALENDAR YEARS 1963–2013 (2014), available at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/us_stat.htm. 10. Arti K. Rai, Who’s Afraid of the Federal Circuit?, 121 YALE L.J. ONLINE 335, 338 (2011), http://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/whos-afraid-of-the-federal-circuit. 11. Chien, From Arms Race to Marketplace, supra note 5, at 304. 12. Carl Shapiro, Navigating the Patent Thicket: Cross Licensing, Patent Pools, and Standard Setting in INNOVATION POLICY AND THE ECONOMY 119, 119–20 (Adam B. Jaffe et al., eds., 2001). 13. See infra Part II. 14. See id. 2015] THE DEFENSIVE PATENT PLAYBOOK 727 needed to navigate the patent system evolved as the landscape shifted. The analysis below follows the chronological evolution of defensive strategies and sets forth a defensive patent playbook for practitioners in the patent field. This Note proceeds in four parts. Each Part reviews the development of the patent landscape as a necessary backdrop for an analysis of various defensive patent plays. The issues from each era cumulated to shape the current patent landscape. Part I evaluates early defensive methods used to navigate webs of overlapping patent rights. Part II describes the rise of NPEs, changes in substantive doctrines, and additional strategies introduced in the wake of the dot-com bubble. Part III discusses the current trend towards increased monetization, and assesses defensive options in the current landscape. Part IV explores defensive tactics that may become widely used in the future. I. EARLY HISTORY Many technology companies did not seek patent rights on their innovations in the 1980s and early 1990s.15 However, the emergence of computer platform-based technologies transformed the patent system. This Part traces the development of the patent landscape during the midto late-1990s and analyzes the defensive strategies developed during this era to combat the changing use of patents. A. BACKGROUND: THE DEVELOPMENT OF PATENT THICKETS During the “early history,” companies shifted their use of patents after actions by the Federal Circuit prompted growth in the patent system.16 In the 1980s and 1990s the Federal Circuit (...truncated)