The National Small Business Association (NSBA) is lending support to legislation designed to reform the nation’s patent system and aid small-business inventors.
NSBA officials said the Restoring America’s Leadership In Innovation Act, which was introduced by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), is a necessary, small-business friendly alternative to other harmful patent reform initiatives currently pending before Congress.
The Association said the bill would restore the right of the first investor to a patent, reinstate a one-year grace period between first disclosure and the must-file deadline, and end the diversion of patent fees. It would also ensure adequate, dependable funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and revamp the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, which invalidates patents at an unreasonably high rate.
The NSBA said the measure would also set a new standard for invalidating a patent; end the automatic publication of patent applications; and allow for damages if validity challenges originate in bad faith.
The NSBA also said the reforms would strengthen patents across the business community, enhance the U.S. patent system, and reestablish the attractiveness of creativity and encourage innovation.
In 2011, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the America Invents Act (AIA), which the NSBA said resulted in negative side-effects for small-business innovators and limited their ability to protect their patents from infringement.