The problem is well known. Academics, attorneys and businesses involved in patent infringement suits have complained about it for decades. Even the courts have acknowledged the gravity of the situation.
The problem, as the Federal Circuit wrote in the 1988 case Burlington Industries v. Dayco Corp., is “the habit of charging inequitable conduct in almost every major patent case.” The court went on to describe this problem as an “absolute plague.” And the plague has not abated since the court penned those words 21 years ago.
