• Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, September 1, 2010 10:50 AM

Patent lawyers are discovering a potentially lucrative new market: suing companies for labeling their products with expired patent numbers. The companies so-far affected include the likes of Procter & Gamble, Bayer Healthcare, Cisco Systems, Scientific-Atlanta, Merck, Pfizer, 3M, DirecTV, Medtronic and, as Dionne Searcy's lede discloses, Brooks Brothers (for its adjustable bow ties).

"Lawsuits claiming false patent markings have been brought against companies that make turkey pop-up timers, toilet plungers, fabric softener, flashlights, staplers, Frisbees, kites, telecommunications equipment, bubble gum and a toy called The Original Wooly Willy," Searcy reports. Oh, yes, there's a better mousetrap in the mix, too.

None of the suits have reaped huge payoffs yet but plaintiffs are drooling at the possible ramifications of a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington last December. It found that companies could be held responsible for up to $500 per offense, meaning that every unit sold with an expired patent number could be worth half a grand to eagle-eyed attorneys.

But it's not just the lure of easy money that propels the suits, avers Daniel Ravicher, founder and executive director of New York nonprofit Public Patent Foundation. The practice "chills competition, it misleads the public and takes away from the credit patent holders deserve," he says.

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