Patent Rules

According to this report from Reuters, Congress is again trying to reform the patent rules, although this legislation regarding damages for patent infringement does not appear to be related to patent prosecution rules. This will be an interesting argument and it will also be interesting to find out where Congress decides to draw the line regarding calculation of damages. Both sides clearly have a point. Industries that require more components will want less damages for patent infringement because there is a greater likelihood they will be facing multiple patent infringement claims. Drug companies and smaller industries will want the damages to stay the same, if not increase, because almost their entire business depends on one or two patents. I suspect there will be some sort of compromise where no one is completely happy.