Patently-O offers highlights on the Senate Hearings on patent reform, and a few concise remarks. Much attention is being paid, properly, to the provision that would limit injunctive relief in favor of damages, which faces strong opposition. The difficulty is that if an injuction is too easy to obtain (because of the strong presumption in favor of validity of a patent, coupled with the "bad patents" problem), enterprises face the problem of someone popping up, claiming a patent on, say, "The Wheel," and enjoining the entire economy. The proposed reform, though, goes too far; anyone can rip off an invention so long as they can pay what becomes in effect a regulated rate. There's a place, perhaps, for limiting preliminary injuctions, if the alleged violator can make an initial showing that there is reason to doubt the validity of the patent. As Patently-O notes, David Simon of Intel proposes leaving the question of whether an injunction will issue to the courts, to consider the equities of the situation. This to me seems to offer inventors insufficient protection--some sort of standard ought to be supplied.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 9:11 AM | Legislation and Legislators, Patents

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