US House bill aims to improve patent protection

A new bill in the US House of Representatives aims to improve protection for patent owners, making patent injunctions easier and invalidation of patents more difficult. Introduced by Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Rep Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), the new Support Technology and Research for Our Nations Growth and Economic Resilience bill, known as the STRONGER Patents bill, claims to support smaller players and their IP over larger companies Bill authors wrote that current patent protection in the US has waned, and argued that the lack of such protections have driven innovation away from the US, according to a blog post from the Representatives posted on The Hill. Reps. Foster and Stivers go on to criticize the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, founded in 2011, saying that while it was intended to improve the process of challenging patents, it “routinely throws out patents that have been duly awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office using loopholes and weaker disparate standards.” “The entire process reduces the amount of time and money inventors have to cultivate their next idea. For America to lead in life-science discoveries, software patents, and medical devices, we must ensure inventors have the level of protection afforded to Edison. Securing “injunctive relief” to make infringers stop the theft of intellectual property is now harder for patent owners. If he were inventing today, Edison would likely spend most of his time in Alexandria, defending ...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Legal News Patent Infringement Capitol Hill U.S. House of Representatives Source Type: news