IPO Posts Comparison of US House, Senate Patent Reform Bills

By William New
The Intellectual Property Owners’ Association, a Washington, DC industry association, has posted on its website a side-by-side comparison of the two bills to reform US patent law currently advancing in the US Congress.

Both bills moved at the committee level last week but now face uncertainty. Both chambers are working furiously toward August recess in the next week, and do not appear to be likely to get to the patent bills, sources say.

The House Judiciary Committee adopted its version of “The Patent Reform Act of 2007,” H.R.1908, on 18 July. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved its measure, S.1145 on 19 July.

The IPO comparison shows a number of differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.

But both bills contain a provision to make the US patent system more closely resemble the rest of the world by granting on the basis of the first-inventor-to-file for a patent rather than first to invent. But some doubt has been raised as to whether it would really harmonise the first-to-file rule. Some legal experts have identified provisions in the bills that they see as most likely to succeed (IPW, Subscribers, 25 July 2007).

Click here to access the IPO comparison.

William New may be reached at wnew@ip-watch.ch.