Innovation Act

Innovation Act of the 113th Congress

Full title	To amend title 35, United States Code, and the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act to make improvements and technical corrections, and for other purposes.
Introduced in	113th United States Congress
Introduced on	October 23, 2013
Sponsored by	Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R, VA-6)
Number of co-sponsors	16
Citations
Stat.	United States patent law
Effects and codifications
Act(s) affected	Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012, Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984
U.S.C. section(s) affected	35 U.S.C. § 290, 35 U.S.C. § 281A, 35 U.S.C. ch. 29, 35 U.S.C. § 154, 35 U.S.C. § 299A, and others.
Agencies affected	Government Accountability Office, Supreme Court of the United States, United States Department of Commerce, United States Department of the Treasury, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Judicial Conference of the United States, United States Court of Federal Claims, Patent Trial and Appeal Board
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3309 by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R, VA-6) on October 23, 2013 Committee consideration by: United States House Committee on the Judiciary

The Innovation Act of the 113th Congress (H.R. 3309) is a bill that would change the rules and regulations surrounding patent infringement lawsuits in an attempt to reduce patent lawsuits.

This article primarily describes the previous version of this bill in the 113th United States Congress, which was passed by the House on December 5, 2013 but was never passed by the United States Senate. Instead, the Senate responded with several bills, including the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S. 1720); in December 2013, the full Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the topic.

In April 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness, Inc., which shifted lawyer's fees for "frivolous" patent suits to the plaintiff, reducing the incentive to file illegitimate suits in the hope of inducing a settlement.

In May 2014, Senator Patrick Leahy, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced he was "taking the patent bill off [their] agenda" due to a failure of the House and Senate to "combat the scourge of patent trolls on our economy without burdening the companies and universities who rely on the patent system every day."

The bill was reintroduced in the 114th United States Congress in February 2015 by its original sponsor, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R, VA-6), and by June 9, 2015, it had accumulated 26 cosponsors.

Patent litigation has significantly increased since 2011, when the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act—the most recent patent law—was passed. The litigation has moved from targeting mostly tech companies to targeting restaurants, grocery stores, and other businesses in non-tech industries, building additional support for a new law.

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