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I'm a moderate comedy buff and over the last couple of years, I've become a big fan of Marc Maron's "WTF With Marc Maron" podcast. Imagine my surprise when I switched on Maron's Thursday installment and heard him begin his show with a political appeal, a non-partisan political appeal, that had to to with IP law. Maron was speaking in favor of the Shield Act, whose introduction was reported in the latest issue of the Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal by my colleague and fellow podcaster Tony Dutra.

The Shield Act—a contrive-cronym for "Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes"—seeks to deter patent trolls by instituting a "loser pays" rule in infringement cases.

Well, on Thursday's show, Maron stated that comedian Adam Carolla, who hosts a very popular podcast of his own, has been named as a defendant in a patent infringement action by a company called Personal Audio L.L.C. of Beaumont, Texas. Personal Audio won a jury verdict in 2011 against Apple Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas over a claim that Apple had infringed two patents, one on an "audio program player including a dynamic program selection controller," and the other on an "audio program distribution and playback system."

Well, "The Adam Carolla Show" is one of the most downloaded podcasts from Apple's iTunes Store. And Personal Audio has made the Adam Carolla Entertainment Broadcasting Network its latest target. Personal Audio L.L.C. v. Ace Broadcasting Network L.L.C., No. 2:13-cv-00014 (E.D. Tex., complaint filed Jan. 7, 2013). And a perusal of court dockets shows that he's not the only podcaster on the firing line. Another favorite podcast producer of mine, HowStuffWorks, is also being charged with infringing Personal Audio's patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,112,504) on a "system for disseminating media content representing episodes in a serialized sequence." Personal Audio L.L.C. v. Howstuffworks.com, No. 2:13-cv-00015 (E.D. Tex., complaint filed Jan. 7, 2013). Another target is Toginet Radio, which hosts a range of podcasts. Personal Audio L.L.C. v. Togi Entertainment Inc., No. 2:13-cv-00013 (E.D. Tex., complaint filed Jan. 7, 2013).

Maron, who notoriously produces his podcast in his own garage, made a plea to his listeners on his Thursday show to support the Shield Act. He said:

I need your help. The medium of podcasting needs your help. ... I don't know if you know what a patent troll is. ... A patent troll basically uses patents as legal weapons. All right? Instead of actually creating anything, or making any products, or coming up with any new ideas, what these trolls do, ... they are basically in the business of litigation or threatening litigation. And the way this works is, patent litigation is very expensive. It could cost millions of dollars. This means that when someone is attacked by a troll, either being sued or bullied or muscled, when they are faced with the cost of litigation, they will just settle, and not fight. And this makes the patent troll stronger. So, the reason I'm telling you this is that podcasters are under attack from a patent troll called Personal Audio. Personal Audio claims to own a patent that covers basically all of podcasting. It's a very broad patent. This not unusual. Broad patents like these are very common these days, and, unfortunately, they ... fall into the hands of these patent trolls. And, as I told you, they're just companies that don't sell anything. They're in the extortion business. They extort money from businesses, from indivduals by demanding licensing fees. And those are obviously cheaper than litigating a case in court. Now, some of you know Adam Carolla is being sued by this company. There are other people being sued by this company. Some people, some podcasters have received letters inviting them--quote-unquote--to license their patent. It's a problem, because it ... not only is it extortion, but it threatens everybody. ... [W]hen this kind of stuff happens, especially to us, especially to people who are working out of their garage, or you who are trying to start your podcast, to all of a sudden, this company, this troll company is going to shake you down, to extort money from you, and they're legally fortified to do it? It's scary. And it's happening. And it's now happening to podcasters.

Maron asked his listeners to join the Electronic Frontier Foundation's effort to support the Shield Act.

Patent trolls have of course been a hot topic for us in the world of intellectual property law, but here's an interesting development in opening patent law up to the broader public community, which the internet has done for copyright law much more than it has for patent law, at least so far. It will be interesting to see how far this might go.

A final ironic note about Personal Audio, though: The Shield Act as it is currently written wouldn't reach the company. It is the original assignee of the podcast patent it is asserting.