Thanks to J. Matthew Buchanan of Promote the Progress for alerting me to this one. The Senate has issued a statement on patent reform, which includes the following "sense of" statement:

Finally, and perhaps most interesting, it suggests that "specific industries with specialized patent needs" should be treated differently by the patent laws.

Is this good policy? Or should patent law be technology neutral (as arguably required by treaty, but that I think is the least of the problems with this "sense of"). Is it really a good idea for the legislature to be crafting industry-specific patent rules? Isn't this a recipe for rent-seeking? Won't the rules always be backwards-looking, as economic conditions within industries are continuously changing? How would one accomodate new industries--before one knows even what their needs are? Is this just an excuse to avoid addressing the really thorny problems of how to improve the patent system overall?

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 2:07 PM | Academia, Big Tent, Biotech, Patents, Pharma, Software

Link to this Entry | Printer-Friendly | Email a Comment | Post a Comment(0)