The House of Representatives recently passed the Patent Reform Act by a vote of 220 to 175. The narrowly approved legislation includes numerous amendments that underscored concerns expressed by many legislators, judges, universities, trade associations, and industry coalitions including the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) representing more than 5,000 patent examiners and professionals in the United States and the White House Administration.

“We may have lost an early battle, but we haven't lost the war,” says Dan Leckrone, Chairman of Technology Properties Limited, a coalition of high-tech enterprises involved in the development, management, and commercialization of Intellectual Property (IP) assets as well as the design, manufacture, and sales of proprietary products based on these same IP assets.

Leckrone says the Patent Reform Act of 2007 (H.R. 1908 and S. 1145) should be of great concern to individual inventors and entrepreneurial companies as well as investors who back them.

AdvaMed General Counsel Christopher White also expressed concerns about the act in this statement:

“The closely divided vote in the House of Representatives demonstrates the significant bipartisan opposition to the patent reform plan as currently written. It weakens important patent protections by making patents easier to challenge and cheaper to infringe at a time when America's innovators, manufacturers, and workers need stronger patent protections to compete internationally. “AdvaMed hopes the U.S. Senate will carefully consider this legislation and act to protect America's competitiveness and the future of medical innovation. This law contains some of the most sweeping changes America's patent system since the 1950s. AdvaMed urges the Senate to delay further patent legislation until important improvements can be made to protect America's workers, inventors and investors.”