Niro and Spangenberg Leaving the Patent Troll Field?

Joe Mullin at Ars Technica writes that two figures prominently associated with the patent troll phenemonen—Ray Niro and Erich Spangenberg—are eyeing the exits of the litigation field they helped create.

Facing a potential fee award of several million dollars to HTC in one case, Niro recently declared the stand–alone patent case “dead on arrival,” citing the Supreme Court’s opinion in Octane Fitness v. Icon Health & Fitness, which liberalized the ability of prevailing defendants to obtain attorneys’ fees in patent litigation—a near–impossibility under the Federal Circuit’s former standard.

Meanwhile, Spangenberg, believed to be behind some 1,600+ patent infringement actions, has left his post as CEO of IPNav. In addition to Octane Fitness, Spangenberg credits the costs associated with Patent Office reexamination proceedings for changing the litigation calculus for patent trolls.

Perhaps Supreme Court patent jurisprudence and congressional patent reform are working as intended after all. That said, the recent flood of patent infringement complaints in east Texas—including a number of lawsuits filed under old Xerox patents—suggests that the sluice gates remain open to some litigants in some courts.