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Statement of Matthew Shay, President & CEO of the National Retail Federation, on STRONG Patents Act

“We appreciate the continued interest by Congress in addressing the issue of patent trolls. However, the legislation introduced by Senator Coons will not effectively eradicate abuses in the patent litigation system. Several provisions of the legislation will actually worsen the current inequities in the patent litigation system that allows patent trolls to thrive and victimize American businesses large and small.

“The number of lawsuits being filed by patent trolls remains at an all-time high. In fact, just last week, a patent troll won a $553 million judgment against Apple, who was found to have infringed on a patent that should have never been granted to a troll for ‘downloading and paying for data.’ Clearly, little has changed since the ‘America Invents Act’ was signed into law. Real reform is more urgently needed than ever.

“We will continue to work closely with Congress and the administration to develop the strongest possible comprehensive patent reform bill. It is not a question as to whether we should pass legislation and sign it into law, it is a matter of how quickly we can end this fleecing of our business community, costing hundreds of millions of dollars and putting American jobs at risk.”

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