Washington, D.C. – March 19, 2015 – The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA), the sole national association representing all segments of the 1.8 million-employee lodging industry, continues to put pressure on Congress to pass legislation to stop the abuse of “patent trolls,” entities which deliberately attempt to extort money from hotels and from many industry sectors across the nation’s economy.

In the latest push, AH&LA urged key lawmakers to adopt certain principles in any legislation considered by either legislative body. The request came in a statement submitted for the record in a hearing in the U.S. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee today. AH&LA also submitted a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding a hearing on the same topic yesterday.

“When a patent troll, with no interest in pursuing any productive use of a patent it holds, can continuously profit from sending exceedingly vague or deceptive demand letters to small business franchisees who own one or two hotels, and have no in-house legal staff, something is wrong with our patent litigation system,” AH&LA said.

Stopping them is critical for business, AH&LA stated. “Only then,” continued AH&LA, “will hotel owners, operators and investors be able to stop wasting time and money on defending their businesses from patent trolls, and turn their full focus toward enhancing the guest experience, building new hotels and creating jobs in their communities.”

To read the statement sent to the House Small Business Committee today, click here. The version sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee can be accessed here.