I am glad to see you post this, and also glad that the courts seem to have found a way to at least partially deal with the situation. When the Patent Reform Act (AIA) was being discussed here years ago, I expressed the opinion that this is one of those provisions that might look good to its proponents on its face, but that its practical effect would be to clog the courts to a virtual standstill.
What your posted article seems to say is that separate suits must be filed against each individual infringer (not to include parent/subsidiary/affiliated companies), but that those suits can then be consoliated for pretrial matters, including discovery. Of course, even the need to then have separate trials would be overwhelming, but at least it isn't as bad as having to conduct separate discovery in each case. As to the latter, I cannot see why even the infringers would want such --- as deep as the pockets of many of these large corporations may be, endlessly duplicated costs and fees are still a waste of funds that could be used for other necessary purposes.
Thanks for your post. Best wishes to you and all.
