Patent Law

The Jerusalem Post ran an opinion piece on February 20, 2008 denouncing the Patent Reform Act of 2007.  The article is by Bernard G. Frieder who "served in the cabinet office of the British government as a technology specialist and has advised private firms in the US and the UK. He is currently working with several emerging intellectual-property-based companies in Tel Aviv."  He writes:

The United States Senate is expected to vote soon on legislation, the Patent Reform Act of 2007, which would change America's patent system significantly.

Because inventors, research organizations and startup ventures around the world rely on US patents to protect the output of their labor, changing the US patent system has global repercussions.

Here in Israel especially, US patent reform will have a profound effect.

On a per-capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech start-ups and is a world leader in developing revolutionary medical devices. Israeli brainpower is behind "Voice-over Internet Protocol," instant messaging, flash disks, and much more.

US PATENT filings have facilitated and protected these breakthroughs. Specifically, the number of US patent applications filed by Israeli inventors has grown from 632 in 1990 to 3,617 in 2007 - an almost 600-percent increase. In fact, Israelis have more American patents, on a per-capita basis, than the citizens of any other country.

But the changes in US patent law now under consideration by Congress would drastically weaken current protections. This is deeply problematic for Israeli start-ups and suppliers of venture capital, who rely on the US patent system.

THE PROPOSED changes would greatly increase the costs of securing a basic US patent and expand filing requirements and processing time, thereby reducing a patent's term of protection.

Also, a US patent would no longer be a secure asset since its validity could be challenged during the course of its effective life. There would be no closure.

Calculation and allocation of damages would likewise be altered in ways that reduce compensation for those whose patents are violated.

US patent reform is a global issue, and Israelis - individuals, associations, and government alike - ignore the bill's implications at our peril. We should be doing all we can to make US lawmakers aware of our concerns.

Thanks to the reader who alerted me to this article.  Read the full article here.