HOUSE PASSES PATENT REFORMS BILL SUPPORTED BY TECH INDUSTRY.

Byline: LISA FRIEDMAN

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Over fierce objections from major manufacturers and drug companies, the House passed the broadest changes to U.S. patent law in a half-century, delivering a potential windfall in litigation savings to the high-tech industry.

The Patent Reform Act passed, 220-175, delivering a political coup to its sponsor, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, who has long sought sweeping changes to the patent system.

The fight shifts now to the Senate where Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hopes to bring the bill to a vote as early as next month. And with billions of dollars at stake on all sides, even the bill's chief supporters acknowledge that negotiations are far from over.

"I would love to get this done this year," said Berman, who leads the House Judiciary Subcommittee on intellectual property law.

"This is an incredibly controversial and complicated issue, but without question it is the most important reform of patent law since 1952," he said.

Nearly the entire Southern California delegation voted in favor of the bill.

One notable exception was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, who said the legislation would be a gift to patent thieves in China and India.

"This bill should be called the 'Steal America's Technology Bill,'" Rohrabacher said, citing a provision demanding that patent applications be published 18 months after they are submitted.

"It's a slow-motion destruction of our patent system."

Also voting against the bill from the Southland were Reps. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino; Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands; and Garry Miller, R-Diamond Bar.

Among those voting with Berman in favor were Reps. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks; Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita; Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks; Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena; and Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles.

Supporters said reform is critical to eliminating serious flaws in the current system, including the ease with which patents are granted for obvious inventions, like tax loopholes. In addition to making it harder to obtain a patent, the bill aims to rein in the soaring number of infringement suits by limiting damage awards.

The technology industry, which helped lead the charge for patent reform, contends it is being held hostage by "patent trolls" who obtain patents solely for the purpose of launching an infringement suit, and the multibillion-dollar awards handed down by judges.

"Today's vote in the House is a victory for American innovators and consumers," said Jonathan Yarowsky, a lobbyist and spokesman for the Coalition for Patent Fairness, which includes Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Adobe and dozens of other tech firms.

"This comprehensive legislation is much needed and will help drive innovation, which is itself the driver for American competitiveness and consumer choice," he said.

Yet drug companies and manufacturing firms, who use patents very differently from the tech industry and may spend millions of dollars to secure a single patent, accused Congress of stripping patent holders of important protections and hurting one industry to help another.

The Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, made up of opponents ranging from Procter & Gamble to Exxon Mobile Corp., called the bill "neither fair nor balanced."

"The House-passed bill favors infringers over investors. As such it weakens patent law," the coalition said in a statement.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Riverside, who holds 37 patents from his days as the CEO of a car-alarm company and said he still has the "soul" of an inventor, called the bill a major improvement over the current system and one that will spur innovation and investment.

"This bill is the best way to promote commerce," he said. "Let's not assume that invention is the goal. The goal is commerce."

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