UK patent rules to be overhauled
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Cut and polish The UK Patent Office has proposed a new set of rules (PDF) which it says will modernise its processes. The rules are open for consultation until June.â¦
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Proposals would clarify fair use of digital materials, bringing British law in line with that of many other countries.
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Blog: Measure calls for the most sweeping changes to U.S. patent system in decades, but its path forward could be jeopardized by lingering reservations from other sectors, including venture capitalists and biotech.
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(InfoWorld) - Five consumer groups have given their support to legislation that would overhaul the U.S. patent system, saying the bill would create fairer penalties for infringement. The Patent Reform Act of 2007 could come before the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote as soon as this week despiteÂ objections from some labor unions, small inventors, and some small tech vendors. The bill, backed by several large tech vendors, also found support from Consumer Federation of America, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Knowledge Ecology International, Public Knowledge, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "Numerous flaws have emerged within the current patent system that can foster poor quality patents and invite uncertainty that inflates the risk and cost of litigation, especially in the areas of software and online services," the consumer advocacy groups said in a Friday letter to congressional leaders. The groups support two controversial sections of the bill that allow for a new way to challenge patents after they've been granted and change the way patent awards are calculated based on apportionment of damages. Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent, but supporters of the bills want Congress to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece. The apportionment provision would "encourage courts to limit damages for infringement so that they bear some relationship to the actual value of the damage to the patent owner," the groups said. The bill's post-grant review process would allow challenges within a year of a patent being granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. "This provision would provide a comparatively inexpensive and quick means to ensure the validity of issues patents before litigation becomes necessary," the groups said. Tech vendors, including Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, have argued that the USPTO often approves questionable patents and that it's too easy for patent holders to sue, collect huge damages, and shut down product lines that have a small infringing piece. But since late July, three labor unions, including the giant AFL-CIO, have written letters to congressional leaders raising objections to the patent-reform legislation. The United Steelworkers letter said nearly 70 percent of patents filed in the U.S. come from manufacturing firms. "These bills would allow an endless loop of legal challenges after patents are awarded that will make it more difficult for U.S. patent holders to prevail against frivolous challenges," the letter said. The Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, whose members include Motorola, SanDisk, and Texas Instruments, has also opposed the legislation. "We believe a number of senators and members of Congress ... have expressed concerns with the bill and a desire to further work on the bill," coalition spokesman Bill Mashek, said earlier this month. The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved its own version of the Patent Reform Act, and that bill is awaiting action in the full Senate.
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Could bring US patent awards in line with rest of world A proposed law revolutionising US patent legislation has passed through a vital committee of the House of Representatives. The bill has got further than previous attempts at such reform.â¦
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For the first time in almost 16 years, the most widely adopted set of rules governing free software has been rewritten and updated to meet the demands of the 21st century.
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Still handing out daft patents, though The US patent system is set for a thorough review, according to reports, with the aim of improving the quality of patents awarded, and thus reducing the number of patent lawsuits.â¦
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Blog: Panel approves slight changes to divisive patent proposal applauded by Silicon Valley firms but leaves key sticking points intact, signaling more political battles lie ahead.
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IBM Tuesday announced a change to its policy on applying for and enforcing patents on its intellectual property. Most importantly, the company said it intends to reduce the number of patents it applies for in the field of business methods, and will make the content of its patent applications public.
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Proposed legislation for overhauling the U.S. patent system would either hurt a system that's worked for 200 years, or fix a badly broken mess, or cost more money, or save more, or raise intellectual-property values, or lower them... yes, the lobbyists have been busy on Capitol Hill as the reform debate continues.
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NEW DELHI: India brought into effect key changes to its patent law on Monday to cover a range of products from drugs and chemicals to mobile phone and computer software, in line with commitments to the WTO.
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A precedent-setting patent decision could affect Canadian innovation and foreign R&D investment.
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The House yesterday passed the most comprehensive patent reform in half a century, delivering a victory for computer technology and financial services companies and leaving drug companies, small inventors, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office bracing for a bigger fight before the bill hits the...
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(InfoWorld) - In the wake of a recent landmark Supreme Court ruling, patent reform is bubbling toward a boil on Capitol Hill, where advocates in both parties and both chambers are urging timely action on pending legislation and contending with well-financed interest groups on both sides of the issue. "This is a big fight about winners and losers," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., adding that he is not entirely satisfied with the pending Patent Reform Act of 2007, which was introduced in the Senate in April. "The question is how do we strike the balance." The Patent Reform Act legislation would make the requirements for obtaining a new patent more stringent, make it easier for rivals to challenge patents, and reduce the penalties for patent violations. Committee chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont said that he, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and a number of other colleagues have been working on the nonpartisan bill for several years and that the existing patent system was designed for a bygone era. A decision by the Supreme Court in April in the case of KSR International vs. Teleflex marked a major clarification of the court's thinking about the granting of patents for new inventions and set a higher bar for what qualifies as an original invention. The ruling has already prompted legal wrangling between VoIP vendor Vonage in its ongoing dispute with Verizon over Internet telephony patents, and legal experts say that the ruling was a direct rebuke to lower courts that have tended to favor patent owners over those challenging the legality of patents that have been issued. Despite strong support from Democratic and Republican leaders in both chambers for change in the patent system, however, passage of the bill into law is not assured.Â  IT behemoths, including Cisco, Apple, Dell, HP, Microsoft, and Oracle, have aligned as the Coalition for Patent Fairness to press for the sweeping changes envisioned in the bill. They maintain that reforms are necessary to reduce costly, sometimes frivolous litigation. However, other technology companies, including InterDigital Communications and Qualcomm, have banded together as the Innovation Alliance and joined the biotechnology and manufacturing sectors to limit changes to the system. They argue that the bill would give patent infringers an advantage. The high stakes involved in the patent issue were illustrated June 6 at a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was briefly delayed as committee aides tried to locate an extra room for the overflowing crowd. "What we're trying to do here is move the process forward," Sen. Orrin Hatch said in an appeal to lobbyists for compromise once the hearing got started. "There are a number of organizations who could stop this bill." The bill's two main sticking points are a provision that would give the public a new opportunity to review patents after they've been granted, and a provision granting the right for an immediate appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after a district court has made a pre-trial ruling on the framework that will be used to determine infringement (known as a "claim construction"). Large IT companies and the financial industry support the "post-grant review" of patents, which would allow for a reevaluation of suspect patent claims before companies are forced to go through lengthy, costly litigation, John Squires, chief intellectual property counsel at Goldman, Sachs & Co., told the committee. Opponents countered that the proposed post-grant review process would create an essentially limitless opportunity for rivals to challenge patents. "If a patent can be easily challenged at any time under a low standard of proof, (then) patents will have much less value, and investment predicated upon them will inevitably be diminished," Kathryn Biberstein, senior vice president of Alkermes, a biotechnology company, told the committee in her testimony. "This, in turn, will likely result in fewer cures for diseases and other breakthrough biotechnology products." The biotech industry and the Innovation Alliance also oppose the right for an immediate appeal after a claim construction ruling, arguing that it would encourage appeals, further prolonging cases. But advocates, including Palm senior vice president Mary Doyle, said it would reduce the chance of conducting unnecessary trials and cut down litigation costs. The witnesses were eager to raise two other controversial provisions in the legislation, regarding how damages in patent cases are determined and the expansion of the Patent and Trademark Office's authority to make rules. Doyle and Squires, supporting the bill's "mandatory apportionment" of damages provision, told the committee that damages today can be unreasonably high because the calculation is based on the value of an entire product, not just the patented feature at issue. Countering that argument, Biberstein and Bruce Bernstein, chief intellectual property and licensing officer at InterDigital, said that the provision would replace today's market-oriented valuation of inventions with subjective jury findings. Debate on expanding the PTO's rulemaking authority mirrored the rest of the patent debate with representatives from the financial sector and the Coalition for Patent Reform joining forces in support, while witnesses from the biotechnology sector and the Innovation Alliance cautioned against the change. An identical House version of the Patent Reform Act is pending, having recently won approval by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. Leahy said he is eager to prepare the legislation for a vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but he did not indicate when that vote might occur.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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There's a brawl brewing as Congress works up the most sweeping overhaul of the patent system in half a century.
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Proposed patent reform legislation would kill the value of patents and allow the theft of U.S. intellectual property, a group of inventors says.
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The Rules Committee of the US House of Representatives is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss how the latest sweeping patent reform legislation, H.R. 1908, is to be introduced to the floor of Congress. Pending the registration of proposed amendments, it could be introduced as soon as Friday.