Another nugget from the US Patent & Trademark Office's website

"On April 3, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate to share the Administration’s thoughts on key aspects of the Patent Reform Act (S. 1145), including the Applicant Quality Submissions (AQS) provision, which he cites as 'the strongest step toward improved patent quality.'

"The Administration strongly supports the AQS provision in the bill in its current form, and believes enacting AQS will reduce the number of poor quality and imprecise applications, thus dramatically reducing patent pendency and backlog, as well as the likelihood of excessive litigation.

"In addition to AQS, the letter addresses numerous elements of the bill including inequitable conduct reform, damages, post-grant review and others.

"To access the letter in its entirety, go to: S1145 Letter. To access the Administration’s views letter from February 4, 2008, go to: Administration Views Letter."

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I'm not sure yet what I think of the Patent Reform Act. It has its plusses (for example, patents of high quality are worth more than are patents of low quality), but it also has its minuses (for example, small inventors, who now have many patents pending before the USPTO, might be seen automatically as "patents of low quality" and thus may lose reasonably easy access to the patent system).

What do you think?

Nancy