I have to admit that I had almost entirely checked out on the House debate this week on patent reform. I've been writing about Congressional attempts at patent reform for nearly a decade now and, from the very first attempt onward, the proposals had serious problems -- and each year the bill would get more and more watered down, removing what few good pieces were in there, until we got the bill this year, which had little of substance. As we noted when the Senate approved it, the bill was pretty useless in that it didn't address any of the actual problems with the patent system. There was a flurry of activity this week as various Reps sought to make changes to the bill (and I've never been contacted by so many press reps or Congressional staffers wishing to get publicity for their boss's amendment than this week), but nearly all of those proposals failed.

inventorsSo if a non-Inventor files first, then, that against this part of the Constitution. Honestly, seems like a piece (and if taken literally, might call into question whether someone but authors and inventors could hold copyrights or patents. That said, those in support of the "first inventor to file" setup made some interesting statements:

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said the draft law still requires the patent-seeker to inventors, and argued that the Constitution does not explicitly on how to ensure patent rights, Congress must. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) agreed.

"This is the first inventor of file" Goodlatte said. "You must qualify for a bona fide inventor for this." Both Nadler and Goodlatte are on the Judiciary Committee.

Now that is pretty interesting. Because in the past, we 've suggested that what the patent system really needs, is an independent invention defense - so that those who come with things not completely independent of the patent in question guilty of the violation. One of the main arguments against this idea, if we 've it to put is that it' s "not as something" as an independent invention, because once something 's invented to get someone else with the same is