Senate Panel Views Patent System Amendments

The US Senate Judiciary Committee has heard testimony on a bill tochange the US patent system. It would remove some of the confidentiality of patent applications while bringing the US patent system in line with most other countries, and make major changes in the Patent and Trademark Office.

The house approved the bill last month, and the Senate is now considering it. The most hotly-contested section is a provision to make applications public 18 months after they are filed, whether or not a patent has been issued. The Senate version of the bill contains an amendment which would exempt patents filed by individual inventors, universities and companies with fewer than 500 employees.

Those in favor of the earlier disclosure feel it is a matter of efficiency in a time of rapid technological change. And with early publication, royalties could be collected earlier, according to some testimony at the hearing. However Beverly Selby, executive director of the Alliance for American Innovation, said that early disclosure would allow large companies to steal ideas before they were patented, and with no assurance of a patent, an inventor would have trouble raising money to defend a claim in court.