Obama Administration Tells Senate It Supports Patent Reform Changes 21/04/2010 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)The Obama administration supports changes to the United States patent reform bill, said US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke in a letter sent late yesterday to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The amendments in question would allow the US Patent and Trademark Office to adjust fees to cover the actual costs of patent processing and services, to establish procedures for reviewing the validity of patents after they have been granted, to “promote international harmonization of patent laws,” balance fair damages for infringement with provisions against abuse of litigation, and help transition US patent law from “first-to-invent” to “first-to-file,” said a Commerce Department press release. Locke praised these provisions as balancing “the interests of innovation and competition.” “The administration is eager to see patent reform enacted this congressional session,” he added. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Related "Obama Administration Tells Senate It Supports Patent Reform Changes" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Dale B. Halling says 22/04/2010 at 4:06 pm What we need is real patent reform, not just a bill that does no further damage. Here are my suggestions for real patent reform that would not only help small inventors but the US economy. 1) Repeal Publication: This would restore the social contract 2) Repeal KSR: A subject standard of patentability just increases costs and uncertainty associated with the patent process. KSR makes bureaucrats the ultimate arbiter of what is patentable instead of logic. 3) Repay PTO: Congress should repay the over $1B it stole from inventors with interest. 4) Regional Offices for PTO: This would ensure steady funding of the PTO and increase examiner retention 5) Repeal eBay: This decision is logical absurdity. If a patent gives you the right to exclude, then if you win a patent infringement case you must be able to enforce your only right – the right to exclude 6) Eliminate “Combination of Known Elements”: The fact that the Supreme Court does not understand that every invention in the history of the world is a combination of known elements is pinnacle of ignorance. Have they ever heard of “conservation of matter and energy”? 7) Patent Reciprocity: If you drive your car across the border into Canada you do not lose title to your car. If you take your manuscript across the border into Canada you do not lose the copyright to your manuscript. But, if you take your invention across the border into Canada, you lose your patent protection and anyone can steal the invention – not the physical embodiment, but the underlying invention. Patent reciprocity would automatically provide patent rights in a foreign country when you obtained a patent in the US and vice versa. This idea was first proposed by the US in the mid 1800s according to B. Zorina Kahn’s book “The Democratization of Invention: Patents and Copyrights in American Economic Development, 1790-1920“. Unfortunately, the idea died and since then patent rights have been part of the convoluted process of trade negotiations. Patent reciprocity would significantly increase the value of patents and increase the value of research and development. As a result, it would spur investment in innovation. Reciprocity would increase the valuation of technology start-up companies in all countries that participated. It would also increase per capita income. Reply
Brian Lander says 22/04/2010 at 4:43 pm How about excluding junk patents altogether. This new film explains how we got into this mess: http://patentabsurdity.com/ Reply
staff says 23/04/2010 at 6:31 pm This isn’t reform. It’s payola. Big business is buying legislation that will cripple their small business competitors. Patent reform is a fraud on America. It is patently un-American. Please see http://truereform.piausa.org/ for a different/opposing view on patent reform. Reply