Sec. 101. Findings
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/bill/116/s/2082/is/section-101·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds that— the patent property rights enshrined in the Constitution of the United States provide the foundation for the exceptional innovation environment in the United States; strong patent rights encourage United States inventors to invest their resources in creating new inventions; patent protection has led to patient cures, positive changes to the standard of living for all people in the United States, and improvements to the agricultural, telecommunications, and electronics industries, among others; the United States patent system is an essential part of the country's economic success; strong patent protection improves the chances of success for small companies and increases their chances of securing financing from investors; intellectual property-intensive industries in the United States generate tens of millions of jobs for individuals in the United States; intellectual property-intensive industries in the United States account for more than one-third of the country's gross domestic product; in the highly competitive global economy, the United States needs to uphold strong patent protections to maintain its position as the world’s premier innovative country;
Congress last enacted comprehensive reforms of the patent system in 2011; unintended consequences of the comprehensive 2011 reform of patent laws are continuing to become evident, including the strategic filing of post-grant review proceedings to depress stock prices and extort settlements, the filing of repetitive petitions for inter partes and post-grant reviews that have the effect of harassing patent owners, and the unnecessary duplication of work by the district courts of the United States and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board; the Judicial Conference of the United States has made significant revisions to rules governing pleadings and discovery in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which took effect in December 2015; the Supreme Court issued rulings in Octane Fitness, LLC v.
Icon Health & Fitness, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 1749
(2014)and Highmark Inc. v. Allcare Health Management System, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 1744
(2014)that significantly reduced the burden on an alleged infringer to recover attorney fees from the patent owner, and increased the incidence of fees shifted to the losing party; and efforts by Congress to reform the patent system without careful scrutiny create a serious risk of making it more costly and difficult for legitimate innovators to protect their patents from infringement, thereby weakening United States companies and the United States economy.
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- 134 S. Ct. 1749
- 134 S. Ct. 1744
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