Congressional Patent Reform: I'll Believe It When I See It

Lynne Kiesling

This week Congress held hearings about patent reform; here's the Wired article on the hearings. Members of Congress claim to be more in unison on this topic than usual, and yet, reform is slow, and when it happens the unintended consequences tend to swamp the purported benefits.

This CNET article provides a good overview of the variety of industry and academic positions on the issues. I like the closing quote:

Although many politicians speaking at Thursday's hearing indicated they were eager to enact new legislation, some suggested hasty action could do more harm than good.

"No situation is so bad that Congress can't make it worse," said Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). "We have to be careful."