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September 07, 2007

patent reform bush-whacked: the decider weighs in

Information Week reported today that the White House has finally weighed in on the Patent Reform Act currently before the House of Representatives.

Regardless of how many Americans seem to feel about our current Commander-in-Chief, it appears that President Bush came to at least one correct conclusion: limiting infringement damages would unnecessarily devalue patents and make it more difficult for patent holders to sue large infringers.

As stated in the official release, “the Administration continues to oppose H.R. 1908’s limits on the discretion of a court in determining damages adequate to compensate for an infringement.”  Further, “Making this change to a reasonably well-functioning patent legal system is unwarranted and risks reducing the rewards from innovation -- a result that would undercut the other useful reforms in this bill.”

The White House also expressed its approval for the Federal Circuit’s recent decision in In re Seagate Technology, which, in the administration’s words: “eliminated the ‘duty of care’ and held that enhanced damages are only appropriate where the infringer acts with reckless disregard of the patentee’s rights.”  While this signing-statement-esque summary seems quite clear, the decision itself is a bit murkier.  Nevertheless, the administration took the position that Seagate “makes the proposed statutory revisions [with respect to willful infringement] unnecessary.”

Additionally, the official statement includes several noteworthy, but less-desirable, conclusions.  The Administration “supports the establishment of a post-grant review procedure” and supports transitioning to a first-to-file system.  Overall, the Administration seems to support the idea of patent reform, but is taking a measured approach to its implementation.

Despite the support for reform, the conclusion is encouraging:  “The Administration therefore opposes H.R. 1908 unless it is appropriately revised to address this [damages] concern.”

Posted by Eagle H. Robinson at 03:17 PM.
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