In a show of broad bipartisan cooperation, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Innovation Act Thursday by a vote of 325-91.
The Innovation Act, previously discussed on the Malloy & Malloy blog, seeks to make drastic changes to the procurement and enforcement of patents, particularly to address issues posed by “non-practicing entities,” colloquially known as “patent trolls.”
The act passed with two amendments. One amendment stripped the bill of provisions that would have eliminated the district court appeal route of 35 U.S.C. §145. The second amendment made some technical corrections and created an exception to the new staged-discovery requirements when necessary to protect a party’s rights with respect to a patent.