Today, Congressmen Steve Stivers (R-OH) and Bill Foster (D-IL) introduced the STRONGER Patents Act. Contrary to its name, if enacted the bill would make our country’s position as the world’s leading innovator WEAKER. By overturning multiple, unanimous Supreme Court rulings and gutting the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office’s valuable Inter Partes Review (IPR) process, it would embolden abusive patent litigators.
Established in 2011 as part of America Invents Act, the IPR process has worked as Congress intended it to work. It has allowed the Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) to reexamine overly broad, poor-quality patents that should not have been granted in the first place. With the complexity of modern technology and the pressures on examiners, the PTO is bound to make occasional mistakes. The IPR process has had a noticeable positive impact on raising overall patent quality and curtailing abusive litigation. The STRONGER Patents Act would circumvent the IPR procedures that have made IPR a vital defensive tool for American innovators of all sizes who come under the threat of meritless litigation abuse.
The bill would also overturn more than a decade of landmark Supreme Court cases. Like the IPR, this case law has helped bring greater stability and stability to the patent system. Sweeping away these unanimous Supreme Court rulings would lead to a renewed surge in patent trolling, seriously threatening manufacturers and innovators throughout the nation.
The High Tech Inventors Alliance is comprised of eight technology companies: Adobe, Amazon, Cisco, Dell, Google, Intel, Oracle and Salesforce. These companies have over 447,000 employees in the United States, have invested $62.9 billion in research and development in the past year and hold a total of over 115,000 U.S. patents.
Press Contact Eileen Doherty White House Writers Group, Inc. edoherty@whwg.com 202-295-2315