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RIP Patent Reform 2010?

By Peter Zura

"I used to be indecisive; now I'm not sure."

      - Anonymous

Well, in the on-again-off-again world of patent reform, it appears that Congress has its finger on the "off" switch.  From a recent EE Times article:

Backing for a draft patent reform bill in the U.S. Senate appears to have waned while support is rising for a more recent proposal to give the patent office more funds to deal with its historic backlog of applications.

Observers say neither initiative is likely to pass in the current Congress though change is urgently needed.  A patent reform bill that passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year has lost key industry backing, say several sources. A separate bill introduced in May to bolster funding for the patent office faces "a civil war" between warring House committees, said one observer.

"The prospects are fairly limited," for all the proposed bills, said Paul Michel, former  Chief Judge of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit .

Read EE Times, "Support for patent office rises as reform bill wanes" (link)

Full post as published by Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog on August 17, 2010 (boomark / email).