Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed the House's version of the latest patent reform bill, H.R. 1249, the America Invents Act, by a vote of 89 to 9. During a speech to Congress yesterday, Pres. Obama praised the Senate for that action, and vowed to sign the bill. When he does, America's patent system will shift to a standard used by much of the rest of the world: a "first-to-file" system intended to ease some of the burden on inventors to prove originality.
Also remaining in the final bill is a vastly expanded post-grant review system designed to move the process of challenging a patent's legitimacy from litigation to administration – from the courtroom to a larger, more funded U.S. Patent Office that will include a new agency called the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. But missing from the bill is the thing that launched it in the first place: an initiative to replace the system of determining damages and, in so doing, reduce the amount of huge jury awards.
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