Patent Reform With An Eye Toward Job Creation

Job creation comes from innovation.  Where are the Edisons and the Bells of today?  What’s stopping them from turning the creative spark inside them into a roaring flame.

Maybe it’s the patent office.

Filing a patent in the United States is tricky, and if the patent is disputed, could lead to very expensive litigation, making defending one’s patent untenable for the small inventor fighting a giant corporation.

In an effort to encourage innovation that they feel is one of the keys to future job creation and an improved economy, the Obama administration is supporting the America Invents Act.  The bill will hopefully improve the patent process.

The America Invents Act, sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, enhances the U.S. patent system by increasing certainty of patent rights through implementation of a first-inventor-to-file standard for patent approval (as opposed to the current first-to-invent system) while also reducing the need for cost-prohibitive litigation, which all too often ties up new ideas in court, stifling innovation and holding back job creation. It will also allow the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which is entirely fee funded, to set and retain the fees it collects from its users. This fee-setting authority will ensure high-quality, timely patent review and address the backlog of patent applications that is currently preventing new innovations from reaching the marketplace. Ultimately, the proposed legislation will provide the most meaningful reforms to the U.S. patent system in 60 years.

In a letter to Chairman Smith, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke states the administration’s stand on the bill: “Enactment of a balanced [patent] bill is an important part of the administrations goal of ‘out-innovating’ our economic competitors and winning the future.”