Leahy: Patent Deal Is Close
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced Thursday that he has reached a tentative agreement on patent overhaul legislation with the panel's ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. "We have reached a tentative agreement in principle that preserves the core of the compromise struck in committee last year," Leahy said in a statement. Leahy said he hoped to release details of the agreement "in the coming days" after consulting with other senators and House lawmakers.
Leahy noted that when he began working on the issue several years ago with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and others "we wanted to improve patent quality and the operations at the [Patent and Trademark Office], and address runaway damage awards that were harming innovation. We are close to a compromise that will address these issues."
He added, that "No one will think this a perfect bill, but we are close to a comprehensive patent reform bill that benefits all corners of the patent community." The patent bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2009 aimed to address the PTO's chronic application backlog and improve internal efficiencies. It also would change the protocol for challenging patents - a move that has divided small innovators, the life-sciences sector and the IT industry.
The Innovation Alliance, which has been critical of the bill, said the changes "appear to be a positive step in the right direction." The group's executive director, Brian Pomper, said in a statement "We have advocated for significant changes to the post-grant review provisions of the legislation that would prevent repeat legal challenges to patents because allowing repeat challenges would dampen U.S. job creation at the worst possible time." Sessions also has raised concerns about the language related to challenging patents after they have been granted that was included in the bill passed by the committee.
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