Patent Reform

According to Reuters, Sen. Hatch is claiming that patent reform is just around the corner. This may not be a bad idea, but I would have to say that the bad outweighs the good in this instance. The good is that the Patent Reform Act would make it more difficult to find inequitable conduct against a patent practitioner. The positive effects of this will hopefully include promoting more open discussions between the PTO and patent practitioners because the patent practitioner is not as worried about inequitable conduct claims. The bad news for the act would be the limitation in patent infringement damages. This is a provision that will only help big, electronic, tech companies because with damages limited to a certain amount, they can choose to just infringe a patent as opposed to actually negotiate a fair license or innovate around the patent. This provision would help many more companies than it would help, and quite likely cost many employees at those companies their jobs. Being a resident of Utah, I understand that Sen. Hatch has a great interest in intellectual property matters. I just wish he really understood them a little better.