US patent attorneys threatened with starvation due to recent ruling

That's the worst case scenario that some US patent attorneys are apparently fearing following the In re Seagate ruling. In this case, the US Court held that (to quote Patently-O) "willful infringement enhanced damages now requires “at least a showing of objective recklessness.”"

US patent attorneys have seemingly made careers out of writing lengthy and expensive opinions for their clients on why a particular patent is not infringed or isn't valid, to reduce the chances of their clients being found to have wilfully infringed a patent (and therefore be hit with enhanced damages). So understandably a ruling that could eliminate this source of work will understandably make some of these attorneys unhappy.

Good commentary on the implications of Seagate can be found at Naked Law and the Intellectual Asset Management Magazine blog.