“US Inventor” upset at patent challenges and Issa transparency and litigation reforms

by Stephan Kinsella on January 19, 2026

Patent holders just hate any challenges to their state-granted patent monopolies. They want their IP rights to be treated like “property rights,”¹ and never challenged, either administratively or in court, so that they can be “relied upon”² and serve as more effective weapons to threaten and extort their victims.³ They also hate legislative proposals that would make it more difficult to engage in patent trolling,⁴ such as The Litigation Transparency Act of 2025⁵ or the more recent bill proposed by Representative Daryl Issa, The Protecting Third Party Litigation Funding from Abuse Act.⁶

Issa is hated by patent lobbyists and IP advocates such as buffoon Gene Quinn, the pest behind IPWatchdog.⁷ The 2025 bill was opposed by Kristen Osenga,⁸ a former engineer, now pro-IP law school professor and dean whom I have debated before.⁹ In her article, she writes:

Across industries, major firms have quietly built a business model around predatory patent theft. That’s by design. Big Tech has turned infringement into a calculated risk. The strategy even has a name: efficient infringement. Companies knowingly steal patented ideas, betting that the legal and financial barriers facing smaller competitors will prevent them from fighting back. If a case ever makes it to court, they can easily afford the payout — which usually costs less than an upfront licensing deal would have.

(Most pro-IP laymen are ignorant about IP law¹⁰ (but stubbornly and stupidly support it anyway), so perhaps can be forgiven for calling patent infringement theft and stealing, but as Osenga should know (no doubt, does know), patent infringement is not theft or stealing.¹¹ It is dishonest and question-begging to call it theft. Actually, what is theft is IP law itself!¹² )

(And by the way, there is nothing wrong or immoral at all with “efficient infringement,” any more than there is anything wrong with efficient breach of contract—in fact, as I have argued, the very concept of “breach” of contract should be discarded and the Rothbard-Evers title-transfer theory adopted instead.¹³ )

The patent troll lobbyists of course hate the Issa bill, just as they hate patent review procedures, because it will make it clearer they are patent trolls funded by third parties with an interest in the patent extortion racket. Take for example the email below I received yesterday from “US Inventor”—according to Grok, “a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization founded in 2015 by inventor Paul Morinville (a veteran and holder of multiple software-related patents)”—entitled “Big Win for US inventor.” (It praises Congressman Massie for helping to impede the bill—no surprise, since he’s confused and bad on IP.)¹⁴ It whines about the 2011 America Invents Act¹⁵ making it easier for victims of their members’ patent trolling and extortion³ to challenge issued patents at the USPTO instead of the more expensive and risky alternative of federal court. A similar group, the “Inventors Defense Alliance” (Twitter) is also none to happy about it, nor the patent shills at IP Watchdog.¹⁶

These IP lobbyists are so upset that victims of their patent trolling can challenge issued patents and also being forced to reveal third-party financing of their patent trolling extortion, since it might prejudice the juries against the patent troll (good!) or make it harder to get financing to engage in patent extortion (good!). (Not that patent trolls are the worst problem with the patent system! Still, a pox on them!)³

Big Win for US inventor

(Jan. 18, 2026)

Hello Friends,

I want to share an important win that only happened because US Inventor is watching Congress every day — so you don’t have to.

While most people were going about their lives, our adversaries attempted to quietly move another harmful patent bill through Congress, fast, and with very little public visibility.

Late Monday afternoon, January 12^th, the Judiciary Committee released a list of bills scheduled for markup Tuesday morning. Buried near the bottom was a placeholder: “H.R. _____.” Once the markup began, a bill number suddenly appeared.

That bill turned out to be Representative Issa’s Protecting Third Party Litigation Funding from Abuse Act.

When Representative Issa is behind a bill, Big Tech is usually close behind, and that has consistently meant harm to independent inventors and startups. Although the stated purpose was to stop foreign adversaries from abusing litigation funding, the bill went much further. Among other things, it would have forced patent owners to disclose their full litigation funding agreements to accused infringers, the equivalent of showing your hand in a high-stakes card game.

With almost no time to react, US Inventor acted immediately.
Through our COO, Dirk Tomsin, who has spent years building trust and relationships on Capitol Hill, we alerted key members of the Judiciary Committee. Those members listened, understood the consequences, and stood with the inventors and startups who would have been hurt most.

What happened next made the real intent of the bill unmistakable.

Representative Massie introduced a straightforward amendment that would have limited the bill solely to foreign entities, exactly what the bill claimed to target. With that amendment, the bill could have passed. Instead, it was pulled entirely.

That moment confirmed what we’ve seen time and again: this bill was never about foreign threats. It was another attempt to advance a Big Tech agenda that has already done enormous damage to American innovation.

This outcome was not luck.
It was the result of sustained presence, ongoing relationships, and months, even years of work in Washington, D.C. US Inventor is the only organization in DC solely focused on defending independent inventors and startups. Had we not been engaged, informed, and prepared; this bill likely would have advanced.

Stopping bad legislation is essential, but it is only part of the fight.

The positive direction we are seeing at the USPTO under Director John Squires is not guaranteed to continue indefinitely. If we want lasting protection for inventors, we must secure strong, pro-inventor legislation while the window is open.

That takes people.
It takes presence.
And it takes resources.

If you value the work US Inventor is doing. the relationships we’ve built in Congress, the constant vigilance against harmful legislation, and the ability to stop bad bills before they advance then please take one or more of the following steps today:

Sign the Inventor Rights Resolution at https://usinventor.org/usi-inventor-rights-resolution/
Share it with others who care about America’s innovation future
Support this work financially, so we can stay on the ground, stay informed, and keep stopping bad bills before they become law

If you’d like to discuss any of this directly, I welcome the conversation. You can reach me at 727-744-3748.

Sincerely,
Randy Landreneau
President, US Inventor, Inc.

USInventor.org