Judge Sees ‘Horrible Implications’ in Murky Patent-Suit Filings

Judge Colm F. Connolly seems determined “to find out the reality” of who’s fueling a rash of suits on behalf of companies that don’t practice the patents they wield in court, and whose owners and places of business often are shrouded in ways that have seized the former federal prosecutor’s attention.

At the first in a series of hearings, Connolly on Friday revealed evidence gathered by his clerks challenging the veracity of basic details provided by the patent-assertion entities. Over the next two months, plaintiffs in more than a dozen patent-infringement suits must appear in court to determine whether the ...