If enacted, the bill would change the way that patent damages
are calculated and would bring the way in which US patents are
awarded into line with most other countries.
The US currently awards patents to the first person to invent
something. The new law would award a patent to the first person to
file for one in relation to an invention, which is the more common
method internationally.
Patent reform advocates claim that this will prevent difficult
arguments over who was first to invent something in favour of
easier-to-settle arguments over who was first to file a patent for
the invention.
The bill was changed in the Committee process to add in more
powers for an inventor to challenge a patent on the basis that it
had been misappropriated from him.
The change to the way in which damages are calculated will mean
that a court should only consider the value which a patent brought
to an invention rather than consider the entire market value of an
invention.
Companies in the technology sector in particular have lobbied
extensively for the changes, claiming that large patent awards to
litigants increased the costs of running patent-reliant technology
companies.
The new proposed law also includes provisions for an
early-stage, non-judicial mediation body and a limit to the
circumstances in which an infringement is designated 'wilful'.
Wilful damage incurs three times the damages awarded in patent
cases.
"Our objective in passing this bill is to reform the patent
system so that patents continue to encourage innovation," said
House member Howard Berman, the bill's sponsor. "When it functions
properly, the patent system should encourage and enable inventors
to push the boundaries of knowledge and possibility."
Previous attempts to push through similar legislation failed at
the committee stage in 2005 and 2006.
The bill is not unopposed. While the patent-dependent technology
sector is largely behind the move, some businesses which depend on
patents are opposing it because they believe it undermines some of
their patent rights.
The bill has passed through the House Judiciary Committee and
now awaits a hearing on the House floor. Similar legislation is
passing through the US's other chamber of government, the
Senate.
