House Rejects Challenge to Patent System Revamp

The U.S. House of Representatives rejected an attempt Thursday that would in effect have nullified key provisions of a bill aimed at overhauling the patent system.

By a 227-178 vote, lawmakers turned back a substitute bill offered by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), a fierce foe of legislation that would turn the Patent and Trademark Office into a government-owned corporation and would change the system for making patent applications public.

The main bill, which the Clinton administration supports, would bring patent law in line with the practices of Europe and Japan by publishing applications 18 months after the patent is filed, regardless of whether the patent has been granted.

Currently, publication doesn’t occur until after the patent is issued--generally occurs 20 to 22 months after filing.

Bill supporters, led by Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), contend that the 18-month publication period would make it easier for inventors to attract investors and would stop the practice of “submarining,” in which patent filers delay action on their applications, then file huge lawsuits when others, unaware that a patent is pending, develop similar products.

But Rohrabacher and others insist that the change would open the way for big U.S. and foreign corporations to steal ideas. “Our most important ideas will be stolen from us by our worst adversaries and used against us,” he said. “This is one of the most grotesque power grabs in the history of this country.”

His substitute version would have allowed pre-grant patents to be published only in rare circumstances, such as when an inventor deliberately withholds publication for personal gain. It would also have made the patent term 17 years from issuance--as in the old U.S. system--or 20 years from filing--the current system--whichever is longer.