The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch · April 2010
78 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 513 (2010)
With the patent-reform bill working its way through Congress, today’s symposium about the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit could not have been more timely.
As with the creation of the Federal Circuit, I believe streamlining our patent system could similarly spur innovation. I know many of you have heard this before, but it’s worth repeating. We have not made significant improvements to the patent system since 1952. Put another way, the last time the patent system was significantly changed, the structure of DNA had not been discovered; gasoline was around twenty-seven cents a gallon; and we had not yet gone to the moon. Cell phones, MP3 players, GPS navigators, and the Internet were far beyond anyone’s imagination.
Technology has surpassed what anyone would have imagined back then, but unfortunately, our patent system hasn’t been able to keep up with the growth in American innovation. The courts have interpreted the law in the light of change, but that piecemeal process has left areas of the law unclear and out of balance—leaving some important, unresolved gaps.
If we are to maintain our position at the forefront of the world’s economy and continue to lead the globe in innovation, then we must have an efficient and streamlined patent system to allow for high quality patents while limiting counterproductive litigation.
We cannot afford to wait any longer.
