Patent Reform Amendments Begin to Circulate
Senator Leahy’s “Patent Reform Act of 2011” was only just introduced to the Senate yesterday, and today, the first amendment proposal has been circulated. As I mentioned in my post of a few weeks back, one of the more curious proposals rumored to be in the works was a pilot program to review the patentability of business method patents; yesterday, that rumor has now coalesced into an actual amendment proposal.
Legislative based news outlets report that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is circulating an amendment to “authorize a pilot program for review of business method patents.” Of course, the Leahy bill already proposes Post Grant and Inter Partes Review proceedings that would embrace all patents. Thus, this amendment proposal seems more political statement than constructive addition.