Some might say that they are a bit late to the game considering that the Patent Reform bill pending in Congress passed the Senate 95-5 in March and by a similar huge majority passed the House Judiciary Committee in April, but opposition to the America Invents Act is intensifying.
Specifically, the issues of the virtual elimination of the current one year grace period and the change from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file regime are being attacked. Clyde Prestowitz, founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute argued against the bill last week on his Foreign Policy blog. He argued that the reason that America leads the world in innovation by large margins is because of our inventor-friendly system of granting patents to the first true inventor, instead of whoever wins the race to the PTO.
He noted that the bill is being pushed by large, multi-national corporations who will benefit most from the change in the law. He also argued that foreign inventors will be at an advantage over US inventors under the bill’s provisions. He urges President Obama to pressure Congress to kill the bill or to veto it if it passes.
Several other media outlets have picked up on this position and question whether Congress is trying to kill American innovation through the America Invents Act.
May 24, 2011 at 1:50 am |
Riiiight.
The problem is that other countries clearly have patent systems which are better at weeding out crap, and that the US does not lead the world in innovation by any competent measure. So what is the true agenda of the “Economic Strategy Institute”? Is it a patent troll operation?
I tend to think that the “America Invents Act” does little or nothing; it neither fixes the severe problems with the US patent system, nor does it generate new problems. But it does slightly reduce the potential lawyers’ fees by giving them less to argue about. So perhaps the opposition is a lawyers’ group?
May 25, 2011 at 6:40 am |
[...] reminds us that companies use patents not to invent but to extort. It is not surprising that the “Campaign Against America Invents Act Intensifies” [via Groklaw]: Some might say that they are a bit late to the game considering that the Patent [...]
May 30, 2011 at 7:57 am |
[...] Campaign against America Invents Act intensifies (Inventive Step) [...]
May 30, 2011 at 4:37 pm |
Yes our patent system has problems, and this bill does not really fix that and creates worse problems.
I wrote about this on 3/8 in the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-lauder/patently-absurd-or-how-to_b_832703.html?view=print
There are many other resources for learning about the problems of this bill. Here are a few:
http://www.rearden.com/public/110319_Patent_Reform_Isnt_1.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_Invents_Act
http://www.reformaia.org/resources/china
http://hallingblog.com/2011/04/26/how-the-america-invents-act-changes-patent-law/
http://bit.ly/Grace-Period-USA
http://www.noonhr1249.org/
I wrote this last summer, so it’s about the older bill…which the house version resembles more closely than the Senate one:
http://journals.lww.com/medinnovbusiness/Fulltext/2010/06010/Venture_Capital___The_Buck_Stops_Where_.4.aspx
The ENTIRE issue of that magazine, Medical Innovation & Business, was devoted to arguing against patent reform. I have never seen that before.
-GML
June 8, 2011 at 11:42 am |
[...] to Patent Reform Bill from Congress By Matt Osenga Most opposition to the America Invents Act, previously passed by the Senate and likely to come to a vote in the House in the coming weeks, has [...]
June 14, 2011 at 2:00 pm |
[...] amount of opposition to the bill has arisen from those involved in venture capital, several from the media, and from within Congress itself. Is it enough to significantly alter or kill the bill? It [...]
August 23, 2011 at 12:21 am |
This is the worst. We should stand together and stop this nonsense.
Why can’t the USPTO tax companies proportionally to the profits generated from a given patent? That would solve the cash-flow issues while increasing access to the patent system for all citizens.
Furthermore, why doesn’t it make sense to spend federal tax money on the patent system???
August 23, 2011 at 7:21 pm |
[...] Policy Blog] [The Hill] [Innovation Alliance] [shellypalmer] [Lauder Partners] [No on HR1249] [Inventive Step] [IP Nuggets] [Trading Technologies]TweetTagged as: patent policy, patent reform, Policy, USPTO [...]