A Patent System for the 21st Century (2004) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 9-17
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From page 9... ...
industrial sectors, in both manufacturing and services. It found that much of the improvement from the 1980s to the 1990s derived from a combination of corporate strategies and public policies supportive of innovation, including steady and conservative fiscal policy, economic deregulation, trade liberalization, lenient antitrust enforcement, and the research investments of previous decades.
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From page 10... ...
It was apparent from these discussions that whatever their long-term economic effect, the patent policy changes instituted in the 1980s and 1990s were associated with much more vigorous acquisition, assertion, and enforcement of intellectual property rights than occurred before 1980. Several participants in the meetings, primarily representatives and observers of the information technology and telecommunications sectors, expressed concern about the high costs associated with the acquisition and exercise of IPRs and with the need to develop stronger defensive intellectual property (IP)
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From page 11... ...
Roosevelt in 1941 included the inventor of the automobile self-starter, a corporate chief executive officer, a regional Federal Reserve Board official, a labor representative, and a university president. Three more recent publicly appointed panels were narrower in composition, primarily senior managers of Fortune 100 companies, their in-house legal counsel, and members of their outside law firms.
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From page 12... ...
The principal recommendations of these study panels are listed in Table 1-1. At the same time that the committee was being assembled, the need for additional analysis and data to inform eventual recommendations led the STEP Board to support nine modest policy-related empirical studies selected from more than 80 proposals submitted in response to a request that was widely circulated in the academic and consulting communities.
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From page 13... ...
Second, the training, recruitment, and retention of the examiner corps are obviously relevant to the quality of examination; but the subject exceeded our resources. Third, the fees paid by applicants and patent holders, a subject of intense debate in the context of the proposed Strategic Plan and pending legislation, are a factor in both the transactions costs borne by private parties and the resources available to the government to administer the system.
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From page 14... ...
14 A PATENT SYSTEM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY TABLE 1-1 Principal Recommendations of Panels and Institutions Studying the Patent System 1919 1936 1943 NRC Committee NRC Patent on Patents and National Patent Committee New Industries Planning Committee USPTO/Examination Status Independent agency Fees, resources, and Increase number of Increase number of personnel examiners and examiners; annual tax salaries to maintain patents, rising over time Evaluation Subject matter Priority Application Publish applications; publication encourage prior art submissions Prior art Standards Opposition Considered and rejected Patent Term 20-year term
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From page 15... ...
INTRODUCTION 15 1966 1978 1992 2003 Advisory Committee Advisory Committee Commission on the on Industrial on Patent Law Federal Trade Patent System Innovation Reform Commission Budget adequate for Revised fees to Budget sufficient to Adequate (more) first-class staffing support USPTO; achieve 18-month funding and equipment maintenance fees average pendency Improved evaluation process and annual quality ratings Computer programs Computer programs Consider all costs and not patentable patentable benefits in extending to new subject matter First-to-file with First-to-file with preliminary provisional applications applications Publish applications Publish applications Eliminate exception so all applications are published Recognize foreign art; Applicant to state revise criteria for relevance of prior art prior art Applicant to have Tighten nonburden of persuading obviousness standard; USPTO second review in selected areas Ex parte pre- and Institute a Revise re-examination Postgrant opposition postgrant re-examination to encourage third procedure party participation 20-year term 20-year term continued
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From page 16... ...
Here there is much controversy about the patenting and patent litigation behavior of both pharma and generic drug companies; but the issues are complex, largely distinguishable from the general working of the patent system, and in any case the statute has recently been modified to address some of the concerns.
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From page 17... ...
Our report supports Justice Breyer's belief that this evaluation, although it must rely heavily on the patent bar and other direct stakeholders, should not be confined to them but should include economists, scientists, technologists, and managers making investment decisions. The stakes have grown too high to exclude any relevant expertise.
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