Heavily debated patent bill advances in Congress

Legislation to reform the nation’s patent system is moving forward in the U.S. Senate after repeatedly stalling over the last four years amid disagreements about how infringement damages should be calculated.
After a series of debates on the measure, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the Patent Reform Act of 2009, S. 515, by a 15-4 vote, sending the measure to the full Senate for consideration after several amendments were adopted.
One of the amendments would strike the original royalty calculations language, instead inserting language that would give judges a greater “gate-keeping” role, allowing them to “identify the appropriate legal standards and relevant factual contentions for the jury.”
The original damages provision would have changed the calculation of damages from being based on the value of the product as a whole to being based on the portion of the product related to the patent.
Proponents of the original legislation said it was needed to discourage huge damage awards based on infringement of only a minor part of a product. But opponents said that it would take the teeth out of the civil patent system, removing a deterrent for companies who might otherwise choose to infringe on patented components of a product, knowing that any infringement penalty would likely be small.
The main focus of the measure is creating a “first to file” patent-issuing system, granting patent rights for an innovation to the first party to apply for them instead of granting patent rights to the first inventor.
Some Republican committee members voted against the revised measure. Lawmakers said further amendments could come as the measure is taken up by the full Senate.

— Kimberly Atkins
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