[Commons-Law] U.S. House begins work on patent-system overhaul

[Shruti Vidyasagar]

The link to the following story is -- 
http://in.news.yahoo.com/050610/137/5ywgy.html

Friday June 10, 07:44 AM
U.S. House begins work on patent-system overhaul 

By Andy Sullivan 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Thursday
began work on an overhaul of the patent system that
would make patents easier to challenge and more
difficult to use as a means to keep products off the
market. 

Members of a House of Representatives
intellectual-property subcommittee said their bill is
the most comprehensive reform of the patent system in
more than 50 years. 

"The bill will eliminate legal gamesmanship from the
current system that rewards lawsuit abuses over
creativity," said Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, a
bill sponsor and subcommittee chairman. 

The Patent and Trademark Office has struggled to keep
up as applications have more than doubled since 1992
and grown in complexity as well. 

Overworked examiners have granted patents for
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and methods for
swinging on a swing, but technology companies say that
a more serious problem stems from opportunists who
amass patents of dubious quality and then sue
companies with similar products. 

High-profile technology companies like Microsoft
Corp., eBay Inc. and Intel Corp. have been targeted in
such lawsuits. 

These "patent trolls" deter innovation by keeping
products off the market and tied up in court, they
argue. 

"There comes a time when over-rewarding patent holders
can in fact retard technological development," said
Daniel Ravicher, executive director of the Public
Patent Foundation, a public-interest group. 

Smith's bill would make it more difficult for a judge
to hold a product off the market when a patent
challenge is filed. 

It would also allow anyone to ask the Patent and
Trademark Office to review the validity of a patent
for nine months after it is issued, or after they have
received a notice of infringement from the patent
holder. 

The bill also makes it easier for outsiders to submit
evidence that a proposal is not unique enough to
qualify for patent protection. 

Smith said his committee hopes to finish work on the
bill by the end of the month, though many details
remain up in the air. 

Though technology companies support the bill, others
say it hurts individual inventors and universities
that must forge business deals to bring their
inventions to market. 

Smaller players will have a hard time protecting their
inventions if they can't stop big businesses in court,
said Carl Gulbrandsen, who oversees patents for the
University of Wisconsin. 

"At the end of the day, you need to have the right to
exclude the infringer," he said. 

Gary Griswold, a 3M Co. lawyer who spoke on behalf of
the American Intellectual Property Law Association,
said the bill would place additional burdens on a
patent office that is already struggling to keep up. 




		
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