WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) today reiterated his support for the America Invents Act, a comprehensive bill designed to update and streamline the patent system in the United States in order to stimulate investment, promote job creation, and increase competitiveness.

Speaking on the floor Tuesday morning, Senator Coons said, “to put it simply, this bill is about creating jobs. It’s about protecting and promoting American ingenuity, and giving American ideas the opportunity to become American products. The America Invents Act is about restoring American competitiveness and leadership in the global economy. “

Senator Coons – a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee – is an original cosponsor of the bill, which was originally named the “Patent Reform Act.” The America Invents Act, which could come up for a vote later this week, includes measures for improving patent quality and the process by which they are issued.

-       The Act transitions the U.S. to a first-inventor-to-file system to simplify the application system and bring it into better alignment with our international trading partners.

-       The Act will strengthen patent quality by allowing third parties to submit prior art with explanations as to its relevance, adding unprecedented depth to the application review process.

-       The Act will also strengthen patent quality by introducing a “first window” post-grant opposition proceeding for challengers, helping weed-out patents that should not have been issued.

-       The Act will improve the process for challenging a patent before a panel of administrative patent judges while at the same time including procedural protections so that these challenges are not used for purposes of harassment.

-       The Act prevents patents from being issued on claims for tax strategies.

-       The Act provides more certainty in the calculation of damages for patent infringement.

-       The Act will allow the Patent and Trademark Office to set its own fees and will end the practice of fee-diversion, thereby ensuring that PTO has the resources need to produce high-quality patents in an expeditious manner.

As many as 1.2 million patent applications await disposition by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with the average application taking almost three years and many applications taking much longer.

“The America Invents Act will create jobs in Delaware and throughout the United States by removing some of the administrative roadblocks currently preventing inventors from becoming successful entrepreneurs,” Senator Coons said in his remarks on the floor. “This bill will improve the speed, quality and reliability of the Patent and Trademark Office and it will ensure that America retains its place in the world as the leader of invention and innovative thinking.”

On Tuesday, Senator Coons introduced an amendment to S. 23 to remove the venue provision of the bill. Although venue shopping is a serious problem, the language in the bill would not have discouraged that practice, but rather would have risked injecting instability and unpredictability into courts' treatment of motions to change venue. Senator Coons’ amendment was rolled into a manager’s amendment introduced by Senator Leahy that passed, 97-2, late Tuesday afternoon.

The full text of Senator Coons’ floor speech, as prepared, is available here:

http://coons.senate.gov/press/release/?id=f8795d8b-5899-4d5c-84bd-6639b6323d75

Video from Senator Coons’ floor speech will be posted this evening to his YouTube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/senatorchriscoons

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