On the Horizon: Congress to Take up Patent Reform

It has been reported that the U.S. Congress will take up patent reform in the near future, despite an ambitious patent reform failing in the Senate last year.  A spokesman for Senator Patrick Leahy confirmed the Senator’s plans to bring up patent reform in the current session.  The statement was echoed by Taraneh Maghame, chief patent counsel for Tessera Inc, “I believe we’ll see something out of Leahy’s office shortly after the inauguration because he wants to move things along.”

As reported on the EETimes, many large technology companies are seeking patent reform, given the rise of companies asserting general, questionable patents against them.  According to RPX Corp., which is a patent licensing service, as many as 16% of patent suits in 2008 were filed by non-practicing entities, otherwise known as “patent trolls.”  At the same time, smaller tech firms claim that patent reform could actually weaken the patent system.

Statistically speaking, roughly 3,000 patent infringement suits are filed every year in the U.S., but that figure has remained constant during the past decade.  Of those lawsuits, only 10% actually go to trial, and as few as 50 patents a year are invalidated by court action.

Yet, the big debate is whether Congress should pass patent reform, or if it is an issue that should be left for the courts.  Chief Judge Paul R. Michel recently suggested in a FTC hearing that the courts should handle patent reform.  He also challenged that the rising amount of patent lawsuits are impeding innovation. 

Of course, others state that the courts are only part of the problem.  An unfortunate characteristic of issues such as patent reform, is that there really is no right or clear-cut answer to the problem.  Perhaps the best course of action, as suggested by some, is to take a “wait and see” approach.

“We need to let the dust settle on the effectiveness of the recent cases because they went a long way to address the needs people had raised,” said Maghame of Tessera.  “Putting a whole layer of patent reform on top of that could have ramifications for the economy.”