“The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to approve a bill that would overhaul the U.S. patent system and allow for a new review of patents after they are approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,” Grant Gross reports for IDG News Service.
“The America Invents Act would also allow the USPTO’s director to set the fees for patents, with the aim of giving the agency enough money to process a long backlog of patent applications,” Gross reports. “The bill would also change who is awarded a patent from the first person to create a new invention to the first person to file for a patent. Most other countries award patents to the first person to file.”
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Gross reports, “Many large tech companies have been pushing for changes in the U.S. patent system for years. The USPTO approves too many questionable patents, leading to patent lawsuits, critics have said… The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Information Technology Industry Council, an IT trade group, were among the groups supporting the legislation… The Senate passed [a simliar] bill in March, and lawmakers from two chambers will now have to work out differences in the two pieces of legislation before voting again on the bill.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]