U.S. Patent-Law Reform Update

Introduction

In January 2009, President Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States. Whenever there is a change in administrations (especially when the new administration is controlled by a different political party), there will be an increase in legislative activity as the administration attempts to fulfill the promises the President made while running for office. While President Obama's domestic agenda is dominated by reforming health care, there has been substantial activity recently concerning patent-law reform as well. This activity not only involves new laws being proposed in Congress, but involves actions taken by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and new decisions issued by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as well. This article summarizes some of the most important developments in patent-law reform in 2009.