Amid all the talk of health care reform, there is another potential reform movement taking shape in Washington—reform of the patent laws. When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was established over 25 years ago, there was a sense that federal courts were not affording sufficient respect for patent rights. Now, after years of criticism from academics, practitioners, courts and some federal agencies, many commentators believe the patent system has become too protective and too litigious.
The Report of the Senate Judiciary Committee on S. 515, the Patent Reform Act of 2009, notes “a growing sense that questionable patents are too easily obtained and are too difficult to challenge.” On March 10, 2009, David Kappos, then assistant general counsel of IBM and now director of the Patent and Trademark Office, testified in Senate hearings on the 2009 Reform Act that “the quality of patents issued in the U.S. has diminished,” and that “the substantial improvements needed to address this quality crisis are not possible without Congressional action.”
