American Innovators for Patent Reform

American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR), a non-profit organization based in New York City, NY, is a coalition of inventors, patent owners, researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, patent agents and attorneys, and others involved in creating or protecting innovation and advocating for stronger patent protection in the ongoing debate on patent reform.

Amendments and changes to patent law

Since the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

passed the first Patent Act

Patent Act

A Patent Act is a country's legislation that controls the use of patents. There have been numerous Patent Acts:Canada:* Canadian Patent ActGermany:* German Patents Act India:* New Zealand:* Patents Act 1953United Kingdom:...

in 1790, additional amendments were passed in 1793, 1836, 1839, 1870, 1897, 1903, 1928 and 1939. A complete revision of the Patent Act took place in 1952 and is the current law of patents, although it has been amended several times, with substantive legislation in 1999 the most recent.

The Intellectual Property and Communications Omnibus Reform Act of 1999 expanded patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

and copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

protections to cover activity on the internet and protections for new forms of media, against cybersquatting

Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...

, domain name

Domain name

A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....

protection for personal names and a new compulsory license for Satellite Carriers. The Ominbus Reform Act also included additional protections for U.S. patent holders, including the American Inventors Protection Act

American Inventors Protection Act

The American Inventors Protection Act is a United States federal law enacted on November 29, 1999 as Public Law 106-113. In 2002, the Intellectual Property and High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2002, Public Law 107-273, amended AIPA....

, First Inventor Defense Act, Patent Term Guarantee Act, Domestic Publication of Foreign Filed and Patent Applications Act. The Patent Reform Act of 2005

Patent Reform Act of 2005

The Patent Reform Act of 2005 was United States patent legislation proposed in the 109th United States Congress. Texas Republican Congressman Lamar S. Smith introduced the Act on 8 June 2005. Smith called the Act "the most comprehensive change to U.S...

, introduced into the 109th Congress, and the Patent Reform Act of 2007

Patent Reform Act of 2007

The Patent Reform Act of 2007 is a proposal introduced in the 110th United States Congress for changes in United States patent law. Democratic Congressman Howard Berman introduced the House of Representatives bill on April 18, 2007. Democratic Party Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Senate bill...

, introduced into the 110th Congress, were substantial rewritings of the entire Patent Act of 1952

Patent Act of 1952

The U.S. Patent Act of 1952 clarified and simplified existing U.S. patent law. It also effected substantive changes, including the incorporation of the requirement for invention and the judicial doctrine of contributory infringement The U.S. Patent Act of 1952 clarified and simplified existing...

but both failed to pass and be signed into law.

Controversy over current U.S. Patent Law and the PTO

The patent system in the U. S. had not been substantially updated by the United States Congress

United States Congress

in 50 years, and it has also been more than 30 years since the Patent Office

Patent office

A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether or not the application fulfils the requirements for...

(PTO) updated its rules for examining patent applications and this has created a backlog of patent applications that total approximately 750,000 to one million. In addition, approximately $750 million in user fees from 1991 to 2003 was diverted from the PTO to other United States agencies as authorized by the Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations bill. As new innovations and inventions have grown increasingly complex and are being created at an even more rapid pace. The patent approval process in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

today has become inefficient and a major obstacle to the creation of a robust environment that fosters innovation and invention, important components of the American economic engine.

Backlog

A backlog of approximately 1 million patent applications currently exists; it takes 33 months for patent applications to be approved or rejected; for sectors like communications in which new technologies develop rapidly approval/rejection can be up to 44 months. Long delays in the patent approval/rejection process create uncertainly and stifle the availability of investment capital and the resulting innovation and creation of new products and technologies since there is risk of infringement on a patent the Patent Office eventually issues for an older invention.

Patent quality

Patent examiners at the PTO work under antiquated rules and with outdated information technology systems that handicap the entire patent review process. In addition the US patent examiner attrition rate is significantly higher than that of other patent offices. As a result of an inefficient and overwhelmed review process and administrative and budgetary problems there is a widely perceived decline in the quality of the patents approved by the PTO. Adding to the problem of patent-quality approval are overreaching patent applicants who seek to take advantage by claiming a larger array of uses for their invention than actually proven. That in turn triggers more challenges, including expensive and time-consuming court cases, which inject even more uncertainty into the patent landscape.

The Patent Reform Act of 2009

The Patent Reform Act of 2009 (S. 515) was introduced on March 3, 2009, in the 111th United States Congress

111th United States Congress

The One Hundred Eleventh United States Congress was the meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government from January 3, 2009 until January 3, 2011. It began during the last two weeks of the George W. Bush administration, with the remainder spanning the first two years of...

by Senators Orrin Hatch

Orrin Hatch

Orrin Grant Hatch is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005...

and Patrick Leahy

Patrick Leahy

Patrick Joseph Leahy is the senior United States Senator from Vermont and member of the Democratic Party. He is the first and only elected Democratic United States Senator in Vermont's history. He is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy is the second most senior U.S. Senator,...

. On March 3, 2009 Representative John Conyers

John Conyers

John Conyers, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1965 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...

introduced a House version of the legislation, H.R. 1260 [9], and on March 17 Senator Jon Kyl

Jon Kyl

Jon Llewellyn Kyl is the junior U.S. Senator from Arizona and the Senate Minority Whip, the second-highest position in the Republican Senate leadership. In 2010 he was recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for his persuasive role in the Senate.The son...

introduced another bill, S. 610. The proposed legislation closely resembles previous attempts at patent law reform in the United States, including the Patent Reform Act of 2005

Patent Reform Act of 2005

and Patent Reform Act of 2007

Patent Reform Act of 2007

. Among others, proposed changes in the 2009 Senate Bill include:

Change from First to Invent to First to File: Unlike other international countries, particularly in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, the U. S. patent system has historically issued patents on a "First-to-Invent" basis. The proposed legislation would require the U.S. patent system to change to the “First to File” system.

Change to limit damages: The legislation proposes to provide defendants with additional provisions to defend against patent infringement lawsuits and limit damages, including requiring infringement lawsuits be filed only in states where defendant has a physical place of business that constitutes a "substantial portion" of its operations; expands use and expediency of appeals; creates stricter criteria for "willful infringement", including the introduction of more extensive evidence; proposes stricter criteria for "reasonable royalty" and when measuring damages requires the court to conduct a strict analysis that will reflect the economic value of the patent’s “specific contribution over the prior art”; allows a "good faith" defense, if defendant believed a patent was invalid, unenforceable or not infringed when violating the patent.

Change to Revisions to Reexamination Procedures: Ensures any party can challenge a patent's validity within 12 months of issuance. If a party - most likely the owner of a pre-existing patent - contests the patent within that time frame, the USPTO must execute discovery procedures and arrive at a decision prior to the end of that 12 months. If the USPTO finds in favor of the new patent holder, the petitioner is stopped from seeking reexamination or asserting invalidity as a defense in subsequent litigation.

Change to Additional Post Grant Review: Within 12 months of issuance, a third party can file a cancellation petition based on any ground of invalidity (rather than simply prior art). The post grant reviews would also be conducted by the administrative patent judges.

Change to Pre-Issuance Submissions: Permits third parties to submit timely pre-issuance information (i.e., prior art patents or publications, evidence of a prior offer for sale, etc.) relevant to the examination of the application, including a concise statement of the relevance of the submission.

Support for the Patent Form Act of 2009

A number of companies (Apple, Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...

, Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

, Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, Oracle

Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...

, Palm

Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc., was a smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that was responsible for products such as the Pre and Pixi as well as the Treo and Centro smartphones. Previous product lines include the PalmPilot, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, Zire and Tungsten. While their older...

, SAP

SAP AG

SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...

, among others) and several coalitions (Coalition for Patent Fairness

Coalition for Patent Fairness

The Coalition for Patent Fairness is an ad hoc organization of companies who are lobbying for reforms to the US patent system. In general they believe that the United States Patent and Trademark Office is too prone to grant overly broad patents...

, Business Software Alliance

Business Software Alliance

The Business Software Alliance is a trade group established in 1988 and representing a number of the world's largest software makers and is a member of the International Intellectual Property Alliance...

and The Software and Information Industry Association) support the Patent Reform Act of 2009

Patent Reform Act of 2009

The Patent Reform Act of 2009 was a set of proposals introduced in the 111th United States Congress for changes in United States patent law. Senators Orrin Hatch and Patrick Leahy introduced a Senate bill on March 3, 2009. Representative John Conyers introduced the House version, H.R. 1260, the...

. The proposed patent reform legislation currently before Congress is supported primarily by large software and technology companies. Supporters of the proposed legislation claim reform will help counter the increasing number of frivolous lawsuits and mitigate damages companies and individuals are forced to pay. Reform would also simplify the patent application process and bring U.S. patent law in line with patent laws of other countries, most of which operate on the "first-to-file" system.

Opposition to the Patent Reform Act of 2009

Patent Reform Act of 2009

comes from an array of diverse groups and industries that represent Aerospace and Defense, Agricultural companies, Biotech, Chemical and Pharmaceutical firms, Diversified Financials, Diversified Technology, Energy, Food Production, Forest & Paper Products, Health Care, Household and Personal Products, Industrial Equipment, Labor Unions, Medical Equipment and Devices, Network & Communications, Payroll Services, Research Universities, Semiconductors & Electronic Components, Small Inventors and Transportation Equipment and Venture Capitalists. Most opposition comes from the view that the proposed legislation will undermine property rights of inventors, stifle innovation and threaten American competitiveness.

Coalition Groups Against the Patent Reform Act of 2009

The AFL-CIO
The American Bar Association's Section of Intellectual Property Law American Innovators for Patent Reform
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Innovation Alliance
The National Small Business Association
The National Venture Capital Association
Patent Office Professional Association
The Professional Inventors Alliance
The TPL Group
The Union of U.S. Patent Examiners

Companies Against the Patent Reform Act of 2009

3M
Caterpillar
Eli Lilly
General Electric
Johnson & Johnson
Procter & Gamble
Texas Instruments

AIPR Opposition to The Patent Reform Act of 2009

AIPR was founded on the following viewpoints regarding patent reform:

Patents are personal property that must be accorded the same respect and protection as any other form of property.
The US patent system has been recognized as being responsible for the economic success of our country. As such, it must remain the driving force of innovation in the US. It is the American innovators who will pave the way for economic recovery and economic growth, who will create new industries and new jobs, and who will assure long-term leadership for the US in an increasingly competitive global economy.
A patent is a social contract between an inventor and society, whereby the inventor is granted a limited exclusionary right, i.e., a public franchise, in exchange for disclosing his or her invention to the public. A patent is a quid-pro-quo for invention disclosure, not for its practice. Whether a patent is owned by an individual, a large corporation, a university or a small business, the geniuses behind these innovations, the source of tomorrow’s technologies, are the true heroes and they must be given a voice in any debate on patent reform.
A strong patent provides protection for the investments required to develop and commercialize the invention.

AIPR's position on Patent Reform

American Innovators for Patent Reform opposes the Patent Reform Act of 2009

Patent Reform Act of 2009

currently pending before Congress. Specifically, AIPR opposes:

Apportionment of damages, which is still in the House version of the bill
Post-Grant Opposition
Redefinition of Prior Art and change from the American First-to-Invent system to a First-to-File patent regime
Limitations on venue

AIPR proposes an alternative reform to strengthen and modernize the US patent system and to provide U.S. patentees with more robust patent rights internationally. Some of these proposals include:

Legislation to improve funding and operations of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), including putting a statutory end to user fee diversion.
Aligning the basic principles of patent laws with copyright laws
Legislation clarifying that the equitable factors in applying the exclusive power of a patent have been considered by, and included in, the framers’ express grant of the constitutional right of all patent owners to “exclude others.” This legislation should provide all valid patent owners with an unconditional right to obtain a permanent injunction, irrespective of the owner’s business or identity.
Legislation to clarify what is patentable subject matter in a manner that promotes innovation.

Legislation that will require the U.S. government to seek trade agreements that remove the built-in trade barriers of foreign patent laws by securing for American inventors rights similar to those available in the U.S. for foreign inventors. This includes adoption of the 1-year “grace period” for invention disclosure and providing reduced fees for small patenting entities in foreign patent offices.

Board of directors

Alexander Poltorak, founder and chairman, chairman and CEO of General Patent Corporation
Lawrence J. Udell, vice president, executive director at Intellectual Property International
Ron Reardon, president of the National Association of Patent Practitioners
National Association of Patent Practitioners
The National Association of Patent Practitioners is a United States non-profit organization of patent attorneys and patent agents and those working in the patent field. The NAPP was founded in 1996...
Pat Choate
Pat Choate
Patrick Choate is an American economist who is perhaps most known for being the 1996 Reform Party Vice President candidate, the running-mate of H. Ross Perot...

, director of the Manufacturing Policy Project
Mike Drummond, editor-in-chief of Inventors Diges

External links

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