Thursday, October 15, 2009

PTO Chief: 'Get Patent Reform Done Now'

Patent and Trademark Office Director David Kappos on Thursday urged industry stakeholders and lawmakers to "move together in the spirit of compromise and get patent reform done now." Speaking at the American Intellectual Property Law Association, he pressed the group's members to "show leadership" because "50 years is long enough to wait" for meaningful overhauls to the U.S. patent system. He stressed that "not everyone is getting everything they want" from the bill that emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee in April but the measure is a "major positive step" for the life sciences sector, small innovators and the IT industry.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy earlier this month said he wants to work with Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule, before the end of the year, Senate debate his bill. His announcement came as Commerce Secretary Gary Locke indicated the Obama administration's support of the controversial measure. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers introduced a companion bill but it remains to be seen how the bill will evolve and whether it will look similar to the compromise that Leahy brokered with Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

During his speech, Kappos talked about his executive team at PTO, which "is going to be about action." Already during his tenure, the agency has rescinded internal rules imposed during the Bush administration that many in the IP community thought were unfair. He wants to develop rules "that improve efficiency and effectiveness... without exacting a penalty on America's innovators." Kappos has also solicited ideas for updating how patent examiners' work is incentivized.

Much of the internal work is aimed at chipping away at the agency's patent application backlog, which is creeping toward 800,000. Kappos called the delay "clearly unacceptable" and noted that Locke issued a mandate to reduce pendency "on an aggressive schedule." Additionally, Kappos touted some high-tech achievements at the PTO, like the launch of a new Web site last week and his creation of a director's blog. The blog, which has been an internal offering, will soon be made public "for the whole IP community to share." "It's important to me that everyone in IP community know what we're working on," he said, adding that the PTO is "open for business."