John Kerry: “the amendment I have sent to the desk is an amendment that is very important. It is important to us in Massachusetts…”

“the amendment I have sent to the desk is an amendment that is very important. It is important to us in Massachusetts, but it is also important to a certain number of companies in this country that may find themselves in a similar situation. I wish to express my strong support on the Senate floor tonight for the inclusion of this amendment in the upcoming House tax extenders bill. The purpose of this amendment is to fix a complete anomaly in the patent law that is vital to our State. Let me explain. The House provision that is being contemplated will allow for a patent application to be filed up to 30 days late, with a penalty to be paid by the filer to the Patent and Trademark Office. This provision has been drafted so that it can be included in the tax extenders bill. Let me explain why this is important and what it does. The Medicines Company, which is a New Jersey startup company, licensed Angiomax. That is the name of the product. It is a synthetic blood thinner. That company invested $200 million in R&D, and it gained FDA approval for this product. In 2001, the Angiomax's patent term restoration application was unintentionally filed after the close of business on the day of the filing deadline. It was filed electronically. Because it was filed electronically on the day of the deadline beyond the close of business in the office, in terms of daytime presence, it was deemed to be filed 1 day late.”