Thursday: Fighting patent trolls in the House

The House starts at 9 a.m. and will immediately begin work on the Innovation Act, H.R. 3309.

This legislation is meant to put up new hurdles to the filing of frivolous lawsuits, an act many agree is done by “patent trolls.” Supporters of the bipartisan bill say these trolls drive up costs for productive companies that have to defend themselves from baseless lawsuits.

{mosads}There are some vocal opponents of the bill, such as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who has argued for the last two weeks that the bill is really meant to spare big companies from patent fights with smaller companies.

But the bill will pass easily thanks to broad support from Democrats. The White House also said this week that it supports the bill.

Members passed the rule for this bill on Wednesday. That rule makes in order eight amendments, which will be debated after general debate in the morning. After that, the House will pass the entire bill and be done for the week.