By Dennis Crouch

Despite his support for gun control laws, President Obama has been a major driver of American gun sales. The theory is that folks have been buying guns them now before the President limits their sale. A similar rush appears to have been going on in patent litigation. In particular, an informally proposed amendment to the Senate patent reform bill distributed last weekend includes a clause for retroactive application – naming April 24 as the effective date of the attorney fee shifting provisions, regardless of when the bill becomes law.

(c) RETROACTIVITY – the amendments made by this subsection shall take effect on April 24, 2014, and shall also apply to any action for which a complaint is filed on or after that effective date.

The result: an unusually large number of infringement lawsuits were filed on April 23, 2014 to ensure that the new law will not be applicable. In particular, about 180 new infringement lawsuits were filed on the 23rd, more than five times the daily average. I wonder how those defendants like patent reform?