Washington – Today, U.S. Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, and Chris Coons (D-DE) and Representatives Kevin Kiley (R-CA) and Scott Peters (D-CA) reintroduced the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA). PERA allows non-technical ideas and activities to be patented if they involve technology in any capacity, even if the technology is not part of the innovation.
CCIA represents both patent holders and those targeted by non-practicing entities (often dubbed “patent trolls”) and has advocated on patent issues for more than 50 years.
The following can be attributed to CCIA patent counsel Josh Landau:
“PERA and PREVAIL would primarily benefit hedge and sovereign wealth funds that invest money to sue actual inventors, hindering innovation and raising prices on American companies and consumers.”
“PERA would expand patentability to a level never before seen – fundamentally changing the U.S. patent system. The bill would make it easier to obtain weak patents that patent trolls can use against innovators, leading to widespread litigation that needlessly drives up prices of consumer goods and medications.
PREVAIL would make it even harder for innovative companies to access the highly effective inter partes review (IPR) process, where technically and legally trained Patent Office judges review a patent to see if it should have been granted. The accurate and efficient IPR process has been under attack from patent trolls since IPR was created; PREVAIL would reward them while harming American businesses and consumers.”
