Patent Reform

• Author: Alexander I. Poltorak/Paul J. Lerner
• Profession: Is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of General Patent Corporation (GPC), an intellectual property (IP) firm focusing on intellectual property strategy and valuation, IP licensing, and enforcement/Is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of General Patent Corporation (GPC)
• Pages: 209-219

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CHAPTER 12

Patent Reform

After reading this chapter, you will understand:

Several facets of the proposed patent reform legislation and

their potential impact on inventors and businesses.

How some of the proposed reforms have been effectively

implemented by the courts already through precedent-setting

rulings in recent lawsuits.

Why a finding of willful infringement will be harder to come by.

The reason for the boom in false marking lawsuits and how

the courts are limiting them by insisting on proof that the

defendant’s mismarking of products with expired patent

numbers was intentional.

The difference between a first-to-file patent system and a

first-to-invent patent system, and why it matters to

individual inventors and small businesses.

What inter partes and ex parte patent reexaminations are, how

they are currently used, and how post-grant review (one of

the proposed reforms) might benefit infringers.

In the previous chapter, we discussed several precedent-setting patent

infringement cases. Now we turn our attention to the Patent

Reform Act of (2007, 2009, 2010 . . . insert year—Congress has

been busy with this for quite some time now) and the changes it would

make to patent law. But as you’ll see, in many cases, the courts

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