Scott McKeown, Partner at Oblon Spivak and Practice Center Contributor, sent in this article discussing the status of the pending patent reform legislation.
Debt Ceiling Raised, Job Bills On Deck
With debt ceiling armageddon now averted in the 11th hour (depending upon your perspective), Congress has turned its attention to election season addressing the economy. As previously discussed, the patent reform legislation has long been touted as a “no cost economic stimulus” that will create jobs.
While there are differences with H.R. 1249 and S.23, most notably concerns over fee diversion, the Senate has indicated a willingness to accept the House bill.
Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has identified patent reform as the first jobs bill to be taken up in the Fall term. To ensure quick enactment Senator Reid has indicated he will file cloture today (to remove the “hold”) so that the Senate can take up the bill immediately when the Senate convenes in September.
Reid and bill sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said the bill, which speeds patent applications, is expected to create 200,000 jobs. Leahy said there is bipartisan agreement with the GOP to move the bill but he could not identify any other bills with a chance of passage
Tags: cloture, Congress, fee diversion, H.R. 1249, Patent Office, Patent Reform, pto funding, S.23, Senator Leahy, senator reid, USPTO
Patent reform without an end to fee diversion is useless. Period. No, wait, it’s worse than useless — House provisions such as the prior user rights nonsense and post-grant measures could certainly tip a patent reform bill toward the balance of “doing more harm than good” … IF such bill does not include a complete stop to the practice of fee diversion. I mean, good Lord, didn’t President Obama even mention the importance of ending fee diversion during his latest major public address (thank you, Mr. President, for bringing up patents again!)? I mean, what exactly is it going to have to take to make our legislature behave in a mature and rational manner (a leading and loaded question, I know)??