House Judiciary passes patent-reform bill

The House Judiciary Committee approved comprehensive patent-reform legislation, sending the bill to the House floor by a vote of 32-3.

Like the legislation that overwhelmingly passed the Senate last month, the bill switches the United States to a first-to-file patent system and allows the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to keep the fees it collects in order to address the backlog of hundreds of thousands of patents. It also establishes a post-grant review process intended to weed out bad patents. A large range of tech firms has lined up to support the bill, including IBM, Microsoft and GE. The drug companies are also strong supporters of the legislation. But some small inventors have complained the changes will reduce their incentives for innovation by favoring large corporations.