Suffern, NY - April 21, 2009 - General Patent Corporation chairman and CEO Alexander Poltorak, writing in the popular syndicated "Washington Watch" column circulated throughout the country, strongly criticized the proposed Patent Reform Act of 2009, and said that "recycling a piece of failed legislation is not the best way to protect American inventors and spur innovation."
Calling the proposed new bill "a warmed-over version of a proposed policy package that didn't pass the first time it was introduced in 2007," Dr. Poltorak said "the apportionment of damages and other changes would weaken patents and make it easier for offshore copycats to bring pirated goods into the U.S. This," he continued, "could have serious consequences for American jobs and the country's competitiveness in the global economy."
The proposed changes would transform the U.S. system for granting patents from a "first-to-invent" basis to the European-style "first-to-file" system, which would lead to a "race to the Patent Office" that favors large corporations over small inventors.
"Many critics," Dr. Poltorak said, believe the proposed changes as currently written "will diminish many of the protections offered by the current law and discourage innovation and venture investment, and make it even more difficult to enforce a patent."
Dr. Poltorak's company, General Patent Corporation, has for the past 22 years assisted inventors and entrepreneurs with licensing and enforcement of their patents, and helped them protect their intellectual rights and property under the law.
Dr. Poltorak, a national expert on the U.S. patent system and a coauthor of two books on intellectual property, also serves as founding president of American Innovators for Patent Reform. Dr. Poltorak has been involved with patent licensing and enforcement, and intellectual property management for over 20 years.
For further information, contact General Patent Corporation at www.generalpatent.com, write to [email protected] or telephone 845-368-4000 x116.