Recent news from power supply companies engaged in patent infringement lawsuits, and the level of attention those trials have reached within the power community have generated reactions and concerns about the way the US Patent System is working.

Indeed, it questions if the US Patent Reform will change the way in which companies apply for patents.

In Europe, the US Patent System has always been viewed with a certain amount of caution and curiosity. Throughout multiple cases in different industries there are signs of evidence that the US Patent System has been used in a way that has diverted it from the original intention to protect ‘Inventors’ and their ‘Inventions’, resulting in a broad range of patent applications that seek to patent basic fundamentals rather than real inventions.

On top of this, new industries such as bio-medical, new technologies, and growth of the Internet have introduced tactical ways of using the US Patent System to strengthen tactical market positioning by applying for very-generic patents making it almost impossible to manage in an efficient and fair way for everyone’s patent applications.

At the end of 2005, the result of all derivations in the US Patent System ended with the US patent office facing an historic high of nearly 400,000 new applications, whilst simultaneously carrying a record backlog of about 620,000 applications. Some filings have been waiting for six years before an examiner has had the chance to review them.

As mentioned earlier, several cases of significant derivations have been reported in the press, fuelling passionate debates around ‘domains’ and how such ‘domains’ were defined in very-generic patents.

What is interesting to note is that the vast majority of very-generic patents are only registered and/or granted under US Patent System and never in Europe, or Japan where such very-generic applications do not comply with the more stringent patent system protecting ‘Invention’ and ‘Inventors.’

Global companies would support bringing the US Patent System in line with Europe and Japan, and to seriously consider how to protect IP in the ‘newer’ markets of China and India.

Last September, the US House of Representatives passed the patent reform bill, HR1908. In parallel, the US and Japan patent offices launched a trial programme which will run until 2008, and on September 4, the Patent offices in the US and the UK announced a trial programme to streamline the process of obtaining a patent in those countries.

These processes will help to reduce the number of very-generic patents, and to restore the US Patent System to what was its first mission; to protect ‘Inventions and Inventors’.

Considering the growing number of lawsuits for patent Infringement in the power industry, and the growing opinion that very-generic patents are not in favour of anybody, the US patent reform is seen as a big hope that we will return to a normal competitive situation between the different players, protecting their IP based on genuine research and true inventions.

Patrick Le Fèvre is marketing director at Ericsson Power Modules