Subscribe to the IP Headline RSS feed | Subscribe to the IP Headline feed via EmailBNA INSIGHTS: Senate Patent Reform Legislation Manager’s Amendment: Consequences for Patent Owners in Ex Parte Reexaminations
May 7, 2010 in Patent Trademark & Copyright Journal · Leave a Comment
America’s patent system, currently administered in large part by the Patent and Trademark Office, was created when Congress enacted the Patent Act of 1790 pursuant to its power “to promote the Progress of . . . the useful Arts by securing for limited Times … to Inventors the exclusive Right to their … Discoveries.”
Over the ensuing 220 years, Congress continued to exercise that power through successive legislative enactments, the most recent comprehensive manifestation of which has been the Patent Act of 1952, codified as Title 35 of the United States Code (“the 1952 Act”).
Initially, the 1952 Act incorporated some of the provisions in pre-existing statutes and treaties, and codified part of the then-current case law. It in turn has been revised a number of times by our nation’s elected representatives in Congress by amending and deleting certain sections, and adding others, and always for the expressed purpose of improving the rights of the inventive community, the overall fairness of the patent system, and the administration of justice.
Unfortunately, however, we are now confronted by efforts of the PTO in pressing for legislation in areas that otherwise would exceed its own rulemaking authority. If enacted, such legislation would have an immediate negative impact on patent owners and serious long-term consequences for the nation’s patent system.
