Notre Dame Law Review Volume 90 | Issue 2 Article 3 12-1-2014 The onV age Trilogy: A Case Study in "Patent Bullying" Ted Sichelman University of San Diego School of Law Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr Part of the Intellectual Property Commons Recommended Citation 90 Notre Dame L. Rev. 543 (2014) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Notre Dame Law Review at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Notre Dame Law Review by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. \\jciprod01\productn\N\NDL\90-2\NDL203.txt unknown Seq: 1 30-DEC-14 16:13 THE VONAGE TRILOGY: A CASE STUDY IN “PATENT BULLYING” Ted Sichelman* ABSTRACT This Article presents an in-depth case study of a series of infringement suits filed by “patent bullies.” Unlike the oft-discussed “patent trolls”—which typically sell no products or services and perform no R&D—patent bullies are large, established operating companies that threaten or institute costly patent infringement actions of dubious merit against smaller companies, usually in order to suppress competition or garner licensing fees. In an ideal world of high-quality pat- ents and optimal patent licensing and litigation, infringement suits by aggressive incumbents would have a cleansing, almost Darwinian effect. Yet, defects and distortions in patent exami- nation, licensing, and litigation—the very problems that are raised constantly in the context of patent trolls—generally apply with equal and, often, greater force to patent bullies.