This week, the White House task force on High-Tech Patent Issues announced "Legislative Priorities and Executive Actions" designed to protect technological innovators from frivolous litigations and increase the quality of U.S. patents. The announcement recognized the challenges faced by innovators created by "Patent Assertion Entities" (i.e. Patent Trolls) and included seven legislative recommendations and five executive actions.
Highlights of the legislative recommendations include:
- Expand the PTO's transitional program for covered business method patents to include a broader category of computer-enabled patents, and permit a wider range of challengers to petition for review of issued patents before the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB).
- Change the ITC standard for obtaining an injunction to better align it with the traditional four-factor test in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, to enhance consistency in the standards applied at the ITC and district courts.
Highlights of the executive actions include:
- Tightening Functional Claiming. The America Invents Act (2011) made important improvements to the examination process and overall patent quality, but stakeholders remain concerned about patents with overly broad claims — particularly in the context of software. The PTO will provide new targeted training to its examiners on scrutiny of functional claims and will, over the next six months, develop strategies to improve claim clarity, such as by use of glossaries in patent specifications to assist examiners in the software field.
The White House's legislative recommendations come at an opportune time as Congress is already working on draft legislation to address, among other things, the Patent Troll problem. On May 23, 2013, Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.) released a "discussion draft" bill to "address the issues that businesses of all sizes and industries face from patent troll-type behavior" to "correct the current asymmetries surrounding abusive patent litigation" and to reduce "the costs of frivolous litigation." According to a press release from Rep. Goodlatte's office, the "discussion draft is the result of bipartisan, bicameral collaboration between Chairman Goodlatte and ... [Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.)]." Representative Goodlatte's draft bill includes provisions to help reduce abusive discovery tactics by developing procedures providing for limited initial discovery to focus document production on core materials. The draft bill further requires the Supreme Court to update the current model allegation of patent infringement form to require more information and greater specificity.
Links to Additional Resources:
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For the full list of legislative priorities and executive actions,
please click here for the official White House press release.
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Full text of Rep. Goodlatte "discussion draft."
- Overview of Rep. Goodlatte "discussion draft."
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