J. Matthew B
Patent Attorney and Owner at Buchanan Intellectual Property Office LLC
Will patent reform legislation be enacted in 2008? Do the business execs and owners think enactment of patent reform in its current form would be a good thing, or a bad thing?
I've been following the patent reform movement since its genesis several years ago. With the House passing a bill last year and the Senate seemingly moving ahead on the issue, we seem to have reached a flash point in the patent reform debate. I've polled the audience with the "will it be this year" question in several talks that I've given on the issue, and figured I'd start 2008 by polling the LinkedIn community.
Thoughts?
Answers (2)
John M
Owner, Colosseum Builders
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I suspect that something with "Patent Reform" in the the title will be passed but, like Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Campaign Finance Reform and Bankrupcy Reform, there will be no reform.
IMHO, one of the most crucial things that needs to be "reformed" is the definition of what can be patented.
Currently patents are routinely being granted to things that are not inventions, including discoveries of the naturally occurring (e.g. gene patents), the obvious, something old but now do it with a computer, combinations, mathematical algorithms and ideas (e.g. business models).
One of the clearest example of the non-reform reform can be found in the House bill where it makes tax planning methods nonpatentable. I agree, but that ban should be extended to all similar non-inventions.
Abolishing the Federal Circuit might be a good start as well.
Bart V
senior patent attorney at Vereenigde
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IMHO the issue should not be looked at from a US perspective only. The USPTO together with the Japanese and the european Patent offices have been discussing patent policy matters, and of course within the WIPO already for some time work is being done on a substantive patent law treaty, in which the USA is one of the key players and motivators.
I wonder whether the USPTO (read the US government) would jeopardize all these developments by hastily implemening any legislation, until it is clear that the developments are acknowledged world-wide and also other jurisdictions move on the IP-front to come to more harmonization.
