Summary: Corporate media continues its obsession with a so-called 'reform' that simply is not; it's an accelerated passage of wealth to large corporations

THE so-called 'PATENT Act', as we have explained before [1, 2, 3, 4], won't tackle the big abuses but only solidify them. The biggest abusers will become more powerful.

"These are not reforms. These are reminders that corporations still get whatever they please in Washington."US politicians, who are funded by the biggest abusers, happily let nothing substantial change (definitely not scope of patenting at the USPTO). The House Committee lets through the so-called 'Innovation Act', another misleadingly-named output of lobbyists and corporations that they work for. There are news headlines that mention the corporations-leaning brand ('Innovation Act') by name [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] and many more that do not [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22]. Having reviewed these, we discourage our readers from wasting time on these. What we have here is fee shifting (legal costs) to the smaller entities that already struggle with such fees, unlike large corporations (they have full-time staff for that). If there's any 'reform' here, it's just the empowerment of large corporations. "America Invents Act Cost the US Economy over $1 Trillion," says this alarmist headline from Patently-O. It's a propaganda piece from "President of New England Intellectual Property, LLC" (legal firm) and we are surprised that even Dennis Crouch, who runs the site, let in such sensationalist BS. The 'reform' is more about passage of wealth. More to the billionaires, less to the rest of us. The farcical claim of "Cost the US Economy over $1 Trillion" reminds us a great deal of anti-Snowden propaganda with similar kinds of headlines (alluding to estimated 'costs' or losses incurred bt the NSA leaks).

The PATENT Act (not Patent Reform) has been reduced into something which everyone is happy with, except the public. Corporate coup is what it really is and as TechDirt correctly points out, it has "basically been watered down to nothing". Apart from this good article from TechDirt (the corporate media and lawyers' sites are largely off point) there is also this piece from Brian Fung, who wrote: "The head of a powerful House committee faces a potential revolt from fellow lawmakers — some of them from within his own party — who believe a bill targeting abusive patent lawsuits is being watered down."

Really? It took them this long to realise that lobbyists have hijacked and diluted every meaningful change that does not aid corporations?

Whether these so-called 'reforms' pass or not isn't all that important. These are not reforms. These are reminders that corporations still get whatever they please in Washington. The system is rigged. ⬆