Innovation Alliance Blog Post: United Inventors Association of America Lay Out Reasons Why Inventors Are Against the Latest Push For New Patent Laws on Capitol Hill
On February 2, 2015 the United Inventors Association of America (UIA), a non-profit organization committed to empowering inventors through education, access and advocacy, took to their Facebook page to lay out their top 5 reasons on why inventors are against the latest push for new patent legislation on Capitol Hill:
5.) It stops the normal process of litigation discovery mid-stream to allow for a court decision on patent interpretation, even when the patent has been issued. This allows for a strategic assault on the validity of a patent, takes valuable time and raises litigation costs.
4.) It requires a “stay” of proceedings against individual parties in the distribution chain of product fulfillment who may benefit from infringement, and forces patent owners to seek remedies upstream where the infringers are often harder to identify and damage awards much lower.
3.) It requires courts to force losers to pay the winners’ attorneys’ fees in any infringement suits, even in meritorious patent infringement cases that ultimately fail for a variety of reasons including lack of funding, depriving judges of any discretion that they currently have in awarding damages, while providing a huge advantage to larger companies with deeper financial pockets.
2.) It allows for involuntary joinder of individuals and entities that invested in, or otherwise helped the inventor as a legitimate patent holder, making those who assist inventors additionally responsible for loser-pays fees, regardless of whether they were even involved in bringing forward the litigation to begin with. This will dramatically reduce capital investment in new product development.
1.) It would mean Innovation in America will soon look just like it does in the rest of the world.
Last month, UIA Executive Director John J. Calvert also wrote letters to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property Chairman Darrell Darrell Issa (R-CA) to express his concern for a lack of inventors’ voices in discussions about new patent legislation. .
Do you share UIA’s and other small inventors’ concerns regarding the current debate on new patent legislation? If so, sign Save the Inventor’s petition here and tell Congress: Don’t make it harder for independent innovators to protect their inventions and investment in the future.