Geneva man goes bounty hunting over expired patents

Geneva's Thomas Simonian is a very litigious man - at least when it comes to patents.

Over the last few weeks, he's filed more than three dozen product lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Chicago citing expired patents. The defendants range from drug companies like Pfizer and Merck to manufacturers like Oreck Vacuums and Hunter Fans, with Playtex, L'Oreal and Bunn-O-Matic in between.

In the suits, filed jointly by three Chicago law firms, Simonian accuses the companies of attempting to "deceive the public and gain a competitive advantage in the market" by brandishing patents that are actually expired on their products.

Simonian is policing the marketplace, but he could benefit as well. The suits cite federal statutes and specifically set out to split any assessed damages, "with one-half going to the use of the United States and the other half going to the person bringing the action."

Why the sudden barrage of lawsuits? A U.S. Appeals Court issued a ruling just before the end of the year in which it decided that the expired-patent law, which stipulates fines should be "not more than $500 for every ... offense," did not offer sufficient deterrent if interpreted to apply for a legal decision as a whole. So it authorized fines ranging from the thinnest fractions of a penny up to $500 for each item bearing an expired patent.

Considering that even one-tenth of a cent can add up when factored over hundreds of thousands or even millions of individual products, and that the cost of filing such a suit is $350, it was like putting a bounty on goods boasting expired patents.

Simonian's attorneys did not return calls, and a number listed under Simonian's name rang without an answering machine.

Chicago patent attorney Michael Femal says similar suits are popping up across the nation.

"I think we're going to see more until Congress passes a bill that only competitors can sue," he said. "Right now, anyone can sue."

Femal said that while citing an expired patent might intimidate a potential competitor from trying to copy a product, the damage to the consumer is minimal.