• Become an SSTI Member

    As the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development, SSTI offers the services that are needed to help build tech-based economies.  Learn more about membership...

  • Subscribe to the SSTI Weekly Digest

    Each week, the SSTI Weekly Digest delivers the latest breaking news and expert analysis of critical issues affecting the tech-based economic development community. Subscribe today!

Presidential Executive Actions Target Patent Trolls, Offer Assistance to Innovators

February 27, 2014

In keeping with the commitment made in his State of the Union address to reform the American patent system, President Obama announced a series of executive actions to improve the quality and accessibility of the patenting process. White House officials also reiterated the call for more sweeping changes to the system from Congress and provided an update on the previous series of executive orders related to intellectual property issued in June of last year. At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering two cases that could have major ramifications for patenting in high-tech industries.

President Obama’s emphasis in the State of the Union address on the use of executive orders to overcome legislative gridlock carried over into his administration’s agenda for the patent system.  Last Friday, the President announced three executive orders intended to reduce duplicate patents and wasteful litigation, to improve the patenting process with insights from inventors and to help inventors with fewer resources navigate the complicated and expensive process of securing a patent.

The new actions include measures to:

  • Better crowdsource prior art by making it easier for third parties to review filed patents online and inform the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of prior patents that may be infringed or that should be noted in the filing;
  • Improve training for patent examiners by making it easier for technologist and engineers to volunteer their time to provide examiners with industry-current information and by making the four USPTO regional satellite offices permanent; and,
  • Provide free technical and legal services to independent inventors and small businesses with the patent filing process and with litigating their intellectual property holdings.

The White House also released an update on the five executive actions issued in June 2013 that were similarly intended to catalyze national patent reform and incentivize innovation. In accordance with those orders, USPTO now is seeking input from the public on a proposed new rule that would require regular updates on all parties with ownership interests in a patent or application. USPTO also is releasing an online toolkit for individuals and businesses to know their rights in instances in which they are targeted for patent infringement. In addition, the White House announced that the Patents for Humanity program, launched by executive order, would continue. The program provides assistance to innovators seeking protection for technologies that would offer significant humanitarian benefit.

Read the White House fact sheet…

White House officials continue to stress the need for more sweeping patent reform legislation in Congress, but a pair of cases before the Supreme Court could also have a major impact on American intellectual property, according to recent articles in the New York Times and Washington Post. The first case deals with whether or not courts should be able to shift the responsibility for legal fees to the losers in patent dispute cases in order to reduce baseless litigation. The second case hinges on whether or not software innovations should continue to be eligible for both patent and copyright protection.

Initially, software discoveries were only eligible for copyright since its essence was coding, a unique written expression of how to accomplish a particular function. In the 1980s, however, lower courts decided that software developers could patent code based on its function, leading to duplication between copyright and patents and between patents for different pieces of software that accomplished the same goals through different code. This spring, the Supreme Court will address the patentability of software for the first time since 1981, according to the Washington Post article.

intellectual property, white house