Obama Signs Patent Reform Bill Into Law

By Andrea Salazar

When Thomas Edison filed a patent for the phonograph, it took him seven weeks to get it approved. Today, it takes an average of 3 years. 

In an effort to change that, Congress passed the America Invents Act earlier this year, and President Obama signed it into law today at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va.

“We have to do everything we can to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit wherever we find it,” Obama said. “We should be helping American companies compete and sell their products all over the world. We should be making it easier and faster to turn new ideas into new jobs and new businesses and we should knock down any barriers that stand in the way.”

The president said the law would remove some of the red tape that makes it slow to get a patent approved. Other changes to patent law now include a first-to-file instead of first-to-invent standard, something opponents of the bill worry will give big companies an advantage over new innovators.

Despite some opposition, however, the America Invents Act of 2011 passed with bipartisan support. The president took the opportunity to talk about his American Jobs Act and urged the same kind of support for that bill.

“We came together to pass patent reform. We should be able to come together to also put people back to work,” he said.

Major hurdles remain in patent reform legislation

Senators Leahy (D-Vt.) and Hatch (R-Utah), along with Congressmen Conyers (D-Mich.) and Smith (R-Tex.), today announced the introduction of major patent reform legislation in both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees have been working on patent reform for the last 4 years, and in the last Congress the House was able to pass the legislation, while it stalled in the Senate. The Congressmen today all expressed hope that the legislation would become law this time around, though all admitted there were major issues to be worked out.

Last time the Senate took up the bill, debate deadlocked over how to reform damage calculations and the handling of inequitable conduct, which occurs when a party tries to enforce a patent it obtained without being completely honest with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. While these disagreements are large, all parties today expressed hope. Senator Leahy, asked what had changed since the last time the Senate took up the bill, responded that there is "urgency" to get the bill through. The Senators and Congressmen linked the bill to the economic downturn, saying that reforms were important to improving the economy.

The bill as introduced picks up where discussions left off last time. It includes several major changes, including switching the U.S. to a first-to-file system from a first-to-invent system, creating a post-grant opposition system to allow challenges to patents within 12 months after they have been issued, and eliminating the publication of pending patent claims. Further, it streamlines many of the forms and procedures in the patent application process.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Leahy said that hearings on the new bill will begin next week. Because the bill stalled in the Senate last time, the House Judiciary Committee is waiting for Senate action before bringing the bill up for consideration.