Obama signs 1st major patent law change since 1952

[ProSense]

Obama signs 1st major patent law change since 1952

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) — President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a major overhaul of the U.S. patent system, a measure designed to ease the way for inventors to bring their products to market. "We can't afford to drag our feet any longer," the president said.

Passed in a rare display of congressional bipartisanship, the America Invents Act is the first significant change in patent law since 1952. It has been hailed as a milestone that would spur innovation and create jobs.

The bill is meant to ensure that the patent office, now facing a backlog of 1.2 million pending patents, has the money to expedite the application process. It now takes an average of three years to get a patent approved. More than 700,000 applications have yet to be reviewed.

"Somewhere in that stack of applications could be the next technological breakthrough, the next miracle drug," Obama said. "We should be making it easier and faster to turn new ideas into jobs."

more

Senate passed the bill last week, roll call.

[CakeGrrl]

1. K/R - on to THE LIST it goes!

[Pab Sungenis]

2. Nice, and long overdue, but

the average voter won't care because this does nothing to get them a job, feed them, or cut the price of gas.

Decisive actions on the big things, please.

[treestar]

12. Maybe it does

The drama is not the only thing of value.

[mistertrickster]

3. As Dean Baker points out, patents are a gov't MONOPOLY that mainly

benefits the rich.

It is most assuredly BIG GOV'T. Patent protection is not free market.

It is another example of how the right-wing and their rich special-interests love big gov't when it benefits them.

And of course, they don't call it big gov't then.

[Gregorian]

4. Excellent I'm getting ready to file a provisional patent.

Maybe I'll better luck than the many who end up fighting the patent office.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stockholmer]

6. Patent Reform Legislation Set to Become Law, But Will Make Few Meaningful Changes

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/09/patent-reform-legislation-set-become-law-will-make

After many years and many failed attempts, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/patent-reform-act-stalls-senate patent reform legislation https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/could-2011-be-year-look-patent-reform-act is about to pass Congress and become law. (President Obama has signaled http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/21/inventing-better-patent-system he will sign the current bill, http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-1249 which should make it out of Congress this week.) The good news: Washington, D.C. recognizes that the patent system is in dire need of reform. The bad news: the new law will do virtually nothing to fix many of the system’s fundamental problems.

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What is much worse, the legislation wholly fails to address many of the biggest problems plaguing the patent system, especially the problem of patent trolls. This is especially troubling now, as trolls are targeting small app developers, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/apple-steps-lodsys-litigation driving some of those developers out of the U.S. market entirely.https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/07/patent-trolls-drive-app-developers-u-s-market The reform act also does nothing to limit patent damages by aligning them with any actual value of a patented invention. We hope legislators won’t treat the passage of patent reform legislation in 2011 as an excuse to ignore the growing troll problem, which stymies innovation, hurting individual inventors, small businesses, and our economy at large. Ironically enough, many in D.C. claim the new law will create jobs; http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/30/technology/patent_reform/index.htm we don’t see how, unless they mean more jobs for lawyers.

We’ll continue to urge D.C. and the courts to limit the trolls’ ability to prey on those innovating and helping to grow technology. In the meantime, if you are an app developer or other small innovator worried about Lodsys (or other patent trolls), please join us on September 9 for “Patent Trolls and You: EFF Virtual Boot Camp for App Developers.” https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08/join-us-patent-trolls-and-you-eff-virtual-boot We’ll be streaming an educational panel live and taking questions via Twitter and email. If you’d like to join us, please email [e-mail] and include your name, email address, professional affiliation, and let us know if you’ve already heard from Lodsys.

snip

[Honeycombe8]

7. Oh-oh. I suspect the bill contains a provision LENGTHENING the time that cos. OWN patents.

I was reading an article on this lately. Corporations MAJORLY UPSET that the length of time a corporation owns a patent hasn't been lengthened. The reason is...it's getting close to the time where some major drugs' patents are goig to expire. The one for diabetes, high cholesterol, or something.

When a patent expires, that means a generic can come out.

I don't know....but I am going to check and see if...horror of horrors, if this bill lengthens the patent-owning time.

If so, that would be a huge deal to millions of Americans. The hormone I take...the brand name costs over $70/month. Insurance paid only $10 of it, meaning I had to pay $60.00/month. Then the patent expired about 3 months ago. When I went to pick up my GENERIC hormone, the cost to me was a flat $10.00. Quite a difference.

UPDATE: I read several snippets/articles about the law online. Although I don't understand some of it, I didn't see anything to indicate the patent-owning time has been lengthened. Phew. I hope that's true.

[Hosnon]

8. I can't find out whether this bill is the one that changes us from a "first-to-invent" country

to a "first-to-file" country.

If it is: this is big business' wet dream. Sorry small inventor, if you can't afford a patent attorney, you're SOL.

[dflprincess]

9. I believe I heard on NPR this week that it is "first to file"

I gathered from what I heard that this works against independent inventors and for corporations.

[SwampG8r]

10. this is a good thing

[MH1]

11. Anyone know why Boxer, Cantwell, and McCaskill voted against?

along with the likes of DeMint and Coburn?

[jenmito]

13. Here's the VIDEO:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2011/09/16/president-obama-signs-america-invents-act