House passes another patent reform act

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 325-91 to pass a bill that would make a number of changes to patent-related litigation in an effort to deter patent trolls. The Innovation Act ( H.R. 3309) would amend language in the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) -- which switched patent priority in the U.S. to first-to-file from first-to-invent -- covering the arguments a party can use to challenge a patent in court. Currently, a party cannot file suit based on earlier legal arguments used with the PTO or on any arguments that it "reasonably could have raised" with PTO but didn't. The Innovation Act would strike the latter language. The bill also would allow judges to require the losing party in a patent suit to pay the legal fees for the other party, and, if the losing party cannot pay, to order other parties with a financial stake in the lawsuit to pay the fees.

Interest groups including the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) have expressed opposition to the bill. In a November letter to the House Judiciary Committee, BIO said some provisions of the bill would create "unreasonable barriers to access to justice" for biotechs with legitimate patent rights. The trade group said the "loser pays" provision would allow parties to add additional parties to a patent suit with "overly broad criteria," and said the bill's increased requirements for an initial infringement complaint would require "unreasonable" disclosure of patent ownership and business information. A group of higher education associations added that the "extremely broad fee-shifting provisions" are a "massive financial risk for universities and their licensees." ...