Press Releases

Today the House Judiciary Committee approved the Innovation Act (H.R. 3309), bipartisan legislation to address the growing problem of abusive patent litigation. The Innovation Act includes a number of measures designed to deter abusive patent litigation while protecting our patent system for innovators, educators and entrepreneurs.

The final version reported out by the committee reflects an effort led by Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Congressman Doug Collins (R-GA) to remove a controversial provision that would have disrupted the nation’s patent system and undermine incentives to innovate by expanding the Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents.

After voting to support the bill during the markup, DelBene issued the following statement:  

“To stay competitive in today’s global economy, America must have a strong patent system that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship. Businesses – from startups to large companies – in Washington state must be focused on creating jobs and cannot afford the economic drain caused by abusive patent litigation. The Innovation Acts takes significant steps towards making our system more transparent and fair. It addresses the need to curtail abusive patent litigation that is costing our economy billions of dollars and jobs.

“While I support the bill today, there continues to be room to improve it in a number of areas. The bill does make progress towards ensuring that those taking egregious actions in patent litigation face consequences. However the challenge going forward will be to carefully craft policy that accomplishes this without making it harder for small startups or individual inventors to enforce legitimate intellectual property rights.  

“Additionally, Congress must act to make sure that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has the resources that it needs to implement the American Invents Act of 2011 and strengthen our patent system. PTO receives its funding through voluntary user fees, not taxpayer funds, yet Congress subjects PTO to the annual appropriations process. This has led to PTO’s user fees being unfairly diverted and sequestered, hindering the PTO’s work to support our innovation economy. I supported an amendment that would have provided full funding for PTO by removing the PTO from the congressional appropriations process, and am disappointed that this amendment was not included in the bill that was reported out of committee. 

“I am pleased that the committee agreed to remove a particularly controversial provision that would have expanded the Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents. This provision would have disrupted our patent system and undermined incentives to innovate, which is why I led an effort with Rep. Collins to oppose this provision. As a result of this effort, the version of the bill that passed today achieved greater bipartisan consensus. 

“The future of Washington state’s economy and the creation of new jobs will be powered by our local entrepreneurs, inventors and the advances in technology they create. This is why it’s so critical that our patent system encourages innovation, not litigation and this bill is a step in that direction.

“I look forward to working with Chairman Goodlatte and my colleagues to improve the bill in a bipartisan manner as we work toward final passage.”