Senate passes patent reform bill

The U.S. Senate voted 95-5 on Tuesday to pass the America Invents Act (S. 23), which would make the first major reforms to the U.S. patent system in nearly 60 years. The bill would allow the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to set its own fees and to keep all the money it collects from fees, which is a provision supported by the biotech industry. Much of the money PTO collects from fees is currently diverted to fund other parts of the government.

The bill also included other elements supported by the biotech industry, such as eliminating the ability of an alleged infringer to invalidate a patent based on the description of the invention's best use and creating a new post-grant review procedure. Some provisions that had been sticking points between biopharma and big technology companies, such as instructing juries how to calculate damages, were removed from the bill. ...