Newsroom
News Events Publications
-
Paul Craane Joins the Debate on the 2011 Patent Reform Act
-
-
January 28, 2011
The 112th Congress has picked up where the 111th Congress left off in regard to patent reform in the Senate. Among the changes proposed by the Patent Reform Act of 2011 (S.23), the United States Patent and Trademark Office would be given a new set of post-grant review proceedings to administer. These procedures would provide a new quasi-judicial venue for review of the decision to grant a patent.
While S.23 appears to be moving ahead quickly in the Senate, Paul C. Craane sees the significant changes in the membership of the House of Representatives as suggesting a potentially different path for patent reform in that chamber. Mr. Craane also questions whether the USPTO is presently ready to meet the challenges of administering the post-grant review program. In doing so, Mr. Craane sides with those, like former Chief Judge Paul Michel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, who suggest that adequate agency funding needs to be ensured if additional responsibilities are to be assigned to the USPTO.
Mr. Craane’s comments appear in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s January 28, 2011 article entitled, “Patent System Upgrade Efforts Under Debate.”
