Reforming patent law necessary

How often have we heard it?

America is an innovator, a matrix for fresh thinking and new approaches.

Americans are explorers in science, medicine and technology.

Our culture is one of adventure, of pushing back frontiers, of earning success from hard work paired with intelligence and imagination.

America attracts bright talents from other nations because here they have the freedom to dream up and pursue exciting new ventures.

Innovation in business, the sciences and technology should be America’s answer to the decline of the manufacturing economy and loss of industrial jobs.

Innovation in business, the sciences and technology could be our salvation from the current economic malaise.

Well, it turns out that Americans were innovating, all right — they just couldn’t get their fresh new inventions to market.

And the reason for that, shamefully enough, has been the backlog at the U.S. Patent Office.

Some 1.2 million patents are pending. And more than half that amount have yet even to be reviewed, much less approved.

“Somewhere in that stack of applications could be the next technological breakthrough, the next miracle drug,” said President Obama. “We should be making it easier and faster to turn new ideas into jobs.”

Yes, and yes, and yes!

The president last week signed legislation designed to speed up that process. The America Invents Act was passed with bipartisan support.

Recently, University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan hit a similar note in her address about the need for funding for research (The Daily Progress, Sept. 7).

She observed, as have others, that in a modern, post-industrial economy, so-called STEM jobs — science, technology, engineering, medicine — are our best bet for prosperity.

She observed, as have others, that India and China are hot on our heels as centers for innovation, investing in education and high technology even as our commitment declines.

“The stakes are high, the consequences of inaction could be devastating and it’s time to get going,” she said.

Ms. Sullivan’s argument for greater research funding addresses the innovation issue at one level. Without money to finance their exploration, today’s innovators cannot develop tomorrow’s breakthroughs.

But when those breakthroughs are potentially ready for market, the last thing we need is a bottleneck in the federal bureaucracy.

The new law is designed to speed up the approval process.

That’s good news. The U.S. should be ashamed that 1.2 million applications are piled up in the Patent Office.

The bill is supported by many — but is not universally hailed. Some say it is tilted to favor big companies, and that smaller firms will be disadvantaged.

That’s a serious criticism. Small companies — such as many of the STEM innovators around Charlottesville — can be lean, efficient and productive. Dollar for dollar, they might even have a better chance at the next breakthrough than the big guys.

Concerns about disadvantage need to be watched carefully. But breaking the logjam at the federal Patent Office, as the law attempts to do, is undeniably necessary.