Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to approve H.R. 2045 - the Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters (TROL) Act by a vote of 30 to 22.  The TROL Act is intended to be a targeted solution to help stop the practice of abusive patent demand letters while protecting the rights of legitimate patent holders to protect their intellectual property. It increases transparency and accountability in patent demand letters so businesses can weed out deceptive letters. The Act also establishes a national standard for the enforcement of abusive patent demand letters and allows the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general to levy fines on bad actors.