Intellectual Property Law

Last fall, we reported on Congress? ambitious efforts to reform the U.S. patent system with the introduction of several versions of patent reform legislation. At that time, the proposed legislation contained several measures that put prominent groups ? in particular the biotech industry and the information technology industry ? at odds with one another. Unable to resolve those differences in a way that satisfied everyone, Congress tabled the proposed reform acts.

The desire to craft some kind of patent reform legislation remains strong, however, and last week the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property of the House?s Judiciary Committee held hearings on one of the pending patent reform bills. In this latest round of hearings, the Subcommittee received testimony from representatives of two large companies (General Electric and Eli Lilly), a small company (Digital Now, Inc.) and a group representing small inventors.

Each of the speakers focused on aspects of the proposed reform legislation relating to the ?harmonization? of the U.S. patent system with the systems of most of the rest of the world. The representative of small inventors testified that significant reform is neither necessary nor desirable because the U.S. patent system functions better and spurs greater innovation than any other system in the world. He further argued that one of the main features of harmonization ? the proposal to move the U.S. from a ?first-to-invent? to a ?first-to-file? system ? would give large corporations an advantage over small inventors because of the greater resources larger entities have to file patent applications. The other speakers disagreed with this position, with one of them pointing out that corporate inefficiencies would level the playing field. Another speaker said that moving to a first-to-file procedure would not mark a very significant change because it would still require a successful patentee to achieve early inventorship.

Congress does not seem any closer to a consensus regarding patent reform than it was last year. Will we ever see real reform? Stay tuned.

Today's Blogger:  Bob Sloss