Right before the August recess, both chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees committed to introducing omnibus patent reform bills addressing patent troll abuses when Congress returns in September. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte recently released a second draft of his proposed legislation, which he states will attempt to target “abusive” patent litigation. While the bill has not been formally introduced, it is expected soon.

For example, the Goodlatte bill would create a presumption that the prevailing party is entitled to its attorney fees and costs in a patent lawsuit. Further, to prevent patent holding companies from avoiding this provisions by being thinly capitalized, a new provision (§299(d)) would allow such a recovery from “interested parties.” However, this provision is not clear as to who would qualify, as it excludes contingent fee attorneys and any equity owner(s) of the patent. Ultimately, while providing defendants with strong ammunition against patent trolls, such a provision would also likely have a severe chilling effect on justifiable litigation by smaller businesses.

Other proposed changes include (1) raising the pleading standard in patent cases to include an identification of the asserted claims and the allegedly infringing activity, (2) severely limiting pre-claim construction discovery , and (3) automatically staying suits against a party’s customers when the manufacturer is actively involved in litigation with the patent holder.

With apparent bipartisan support, including the expected support of President Obama who last month issued a set of executive actions including stopping patent trolls, we may see some additional form of patent litigation reform in this session, provided that all of the bills being considered can be harmonized.