From The San Francisco Chronicle
Silicon Valley: Patent reform passed by Senate
By Carolyn Lochhead
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. patent system on Tuesday, over the objections of much of Silicon Valley and warnings from California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer that the legislation could harm small inventors.
The America Invents Act, six years in the making, passed the Senate on a 95-5 vote as both parties joined the Obama administration in arguing that an antiquated and litigation-riddled patent system is hobbling innovation. Feinstein voted for the bill, despite losing a vote on a critical amendment, while Boxer opposed the entire bill.
In Silicon Valley, the nation's nucleus of invention, small inventors and huge tech icons have lined up against the legislation, each for different reasons.
A key element of the bill, which Feinstein and Boxer tried to kill, would award a patent to the first person to file a patent application, a change from the current practice of awarding a patent to the first person to invent a product.
Feinstein had supported a first-to-file system but she said she became convinced that was a mistake after listening to small inventors and venture capitalists in California. Her amendment lost 87-13....
Pamela Samuelson, director of UC Berkeley's Center for Law and Technology [and professor in the School of Information], said in an e-mail that the United States and the Philippines are the only nations that have first-to-invent systems.
"The international norm is that the first inventor to file gets a patent," Samuelson said. "The economic arguments in favor of the first-to-file system are strong and the 'little guy' inventor story that this rule favors big firms is really a myth."