Poltorak:

Ever wonder why the US now turns the clock back one hour right after Halloween? According to a book by Michael Downing, it's largely due to the candy lobby that spent much time and money giving out candy-filled pumpkins and making election donations to members of Congress.

Similar forces are at work in another Washington debate that threatens to turn back the clock on innovation as early as February: the so-called Patent Reform Act of 2007. Despite the fact that improvement in some fashion is needed, this sweeping reform, if made law, will undermine the core of the patent system in the United States. It will mean weaker protection for small inventors, university researchers, and entrepreneurs across America.

The frequent characterization of the issue as a struggle between big pharmaceutical companies (against this reform) and the high-tech computer industry (for this reform) is not quite right. In fact, just a handful of high-tech giants – Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Oracle, and Dell – support the proposed reforms. Small high-tech companies – the true innovators of this industry – overwhelmingly reject them as do innovators from other industries.

Poltorak then takes aim at proposed revisions for damages apportionment; first-to-invent; and willfulness.

As to the consequences of such ill-considered notions:

The proposed changes in US patent law will make it easier for offshore copycats to bring their pirated goods into the US with impunity. More jobs will be lost as a result, with devastating consequences for American competitiveness in the global economy.

The average cost of defending a patent in court is already about $4 million, an exorbitant cost for independent inventors, small companies, and universities. The proposed legislation would make it even more costly and reduce recoverable damages. Reducing patent litigation by making it more expensive to defend a patent only encourages unscrupulous theft of ideas.