The Senate approved Senate Bill 23, which would enable the patent office to keep the fees it collects for internal use. By contrast, the House approved patent reform with a different slant: House bill HR 1249 proposes that the patent office’s funding can only be spent with Congressional approval.

 

Still, some form of patent change is to be expected soon as thehe Senate bill will likely be approved by Obama. Chief among the changes to patent system: a reward for being “first to file” new inventions with the patent office. Historically, the patent office prioritized inventions based on who invented them first. Conversely, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, “The new system puts a premium on inventors with the wits—or deep pockets—to dash to the patent office as soon as they discover something useful and nonobvious.”

 

Among the expected consequences of this approach is that it will make the patent system more predictable. Critics say the new rules favor big businesses that have ample resources to devote to IP. 

 

Raymond Vahan Damadian, a physician who helped develop the first magnetic resonance machine, has stated that the MRI could not have been invented under the proposed patent rules.

 

For more information on patent reform, I recommend checking out Ezra Klein's piece aptly titled "Everything you need to know about patent reform in one post."

 

—Brian Buntz