It’s hardly news that the Obama Administration is no friend of so-called ???Patent Assertion Entities,??? or PAEs.?? Not only members of the administration, but the big man himself have spoken publicly against those companies that make a business model out of buying and asserting patents, as compared to those that actually develop new technology, such as universities, which then then seek to license (sometimes referred to as ???Non-Practicing Entities,??? or NPEs).
Most of what little we know about the business strategies, licensing practices and economics of PAEs has been gleaned from disclosures made in the course of litigation.?? Now the Federal Trade Commission has decided to gather some first-hand information on exactly how PAEs operate. And, because it is a regulatory agency, it can do so by asking the PAEs themselves to respond, and under oath, to boot.