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28 August 2015Patents

Conservative group concerned about patent reform

A Conservative pressure group, which includes the former attorney general under ex-President Ronald Reagan, has voiced its concerns about the latest attempts by Congress to reform the patent system.

In a letter sent from Conservative Action Project (CAP), the group said fellow Conservatives should be “wary when elected officials start talking about reforming the patent system”.

“Certainly, some targeted changes may be warranted on occasion, but, as we have seen time and again, the leadership in Washington thinks every problem, large or small, needs a comprehensive reform and overhaul,” the letter said.

The letter was signed by, among others, former attorney general to Reagan Edwin Meese, Reagan’s former adviser Becky Dunlop, and David McIntosh, president of the right-wing political pressure group Club for Growth.

The group has targeted both the Innovation Act and the Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act.

Both bills are targeted at curbing abusive litigation from non-practising entities (NPEs).

In June, the Innovation Act was passed by the House of Representative’s House Judiciary Committee and the PATENT Act passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Before they can become law, the Innovation Act will go to the full House while the PATENT Act will need to be voted on by the full Senate.

According to CAP, the passing of both bills would benefit companies such as Google at the expense of small-to-medium enterprises.

In the letter, called Memo for the Movement and dated August 21, the group argued that both acts “are sweeping legislative overhauls that will undermine many of the current protections of our patent system ... Many large and powerful tech companies—like Google—which have been supportive of the Obama agenda have lobbied aggressively for patent reform.

“The legislation would be great for their bottom line ... [but] it would do so at the cost of small inventors who don’t have the same lobbying power,” the letter added.

The letter concluded with a plea for Congress to take a “step back” in supporting the legislation and instead “consider targeted and minimal reforms” to address some of the concerns that stakeholders have with current US patent laws.

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