Orrin Hatch: “I wish to again voice my strong support for passage of this very important legislation. We have been working on this…”

“I wish to again voice my strong support for passage of this very important legislation. We have been working on this bill for a number of years and it is satisfying to finally see the full Senate consider it now. As I have said before, the patent reform bill is about moving our Nation toward the future. It will equip America's inventors with an improved patent system that will enable them to better compete in today's global economy. Toward that end, I would like to discuss some of the key provisions of this bill and what they will do to improve and modernize our patent system. There are some misconceptions about the proposed first-inventor-to-file provision. Some have questioned why we cannot maintain the current first-to-invent system, in which priority is established by determining which applicant actually invented the claimed invention first. Under this system, if there is a dispute, it costs applicants an average of $500,000 in legal fees to prove they were the first-to-invent.”