Yesterday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a patent reform bill to the House and in the Senate that would bring the U.S. in line with other nations with regard to prior art. In short, the U.S. will no longer care if prior art exists. The first to file for a patent gets it, and those who've been tinkering away at a filing or perhaps the invention itself, lose out if someone makes it to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office before they do. It also would allow for a post grant opposition process, which means a patent could be challenged even after it is granted without resorting to a lawsuit.

So far, the usual players such as IBM Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. have come out in favor of the bill, while small inventors and the pharmaceutical companies allege that such a change would hurt their ability to spend time researching before filing for a patent, as well as cause a patent to face questions of validity even after it has been granted. This is the third patent reform act attempted Congress. The Patent Reform Acts of 2005 and 2006 all met untimely deaths at the hands of squabbling industry players. This time, the players and arguments remain about the same, so we'll see what changes in the latest bill will allow the this attempt at reform to make it through.
— Stacey Higginbotham

Join Corporate Dealmaker's LinkedIn forum