Senate passes bill to overhaul patent system

[Tx4obama]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's outmoded patent system, which has forced innovators and inventors to wait years and outlast challenges and lawsuits before getting recognition for their products, would be overhauled under a measure passed Tuesday by the Senate.

The legislation, which was approved 95-5, transforms a patent system now operating under a law passed in 1952, at a time when the high-tech revolution was still in the future and international competition was still negligible. It now moves to the House.

President Barack Obama said he looked forward to signing into law "the most significant patent reform in over half a century" to help grow the economy and create jobs.

The most substantial change brought about by the bill would be to switch the United States to a "first-inventor-to-file" system for patent applications used by all other industrialized countries rather than the current "first-to-invent" system. Supporters say the first-to-file system would put American innovators on the same page as their overseas competitors, making the process simpler, more certain and less expensive.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_PATENTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-08-19-45-57

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The bill will be sent to the House for approval before it heads to the desk of President Obama.

[Confusious]

1. Hopefully they fix the stupid bullshit that has been going on the past few years

"Look at how inventive I am! You press a button on the screen, and something happens. I shall file for a patent, and then sue everyone who has already been doing this for the past 30 years! That's good old AMERICAN innovation!"

http://www.horrorseek.com/home/halloween/wolfstone/Logistics/logpat_StupidPatents.html

http://mosspuppet.com/2010/02/26/stupid-facebook-granted-a-patent-for-a-list-of-information/
http://rc3.org/2010/02/25/stupid-software-patents/

http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/software-patents---stupid-or-insane/

http://www.jasonmendelson.com/wp/archives/2008/08/stupid-patent-case-of-the-week.php

[seabeckind]

2. Seems like this legalizes it

My rule of thumb is usually Orrin Hatch. If he's for something it's usually something good for the big guys and bad for us commoners.

If there's a backlog in the patent office, get more people and better ones.

This is just an excuse to do something bad.

[Demeter]

3. I Agree

It would be open warfare: stealing other people's work to rush it into the patent office to get the licensing profits.