The Hill News

Let’s say you have city permission to host a farmer’s market on your property between two national grocery chains. How would you feel if those large competitors stopped you by wrongly claiming you don’t own the land?

Now let’s say you spend four years and vast sums in legal costs to persuade the city that in fact you do own the land. Should you be allowed to sue the grocery stores for damages if it turns out their claims were bogus and solely intended to delay competition from your business?

This is the situation facing my friend Larry Lockwood who owns a different kind of property â€" pioneering patents in electronic commerce granted by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office.

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