Small-time inventors cry foul on patent changes

updated 6:44 p.m. ET Oct. 21, 2005

WASHINGTON - In the world of small-time inventors, George Margolin, 75, of Newport Beach, Calif., is a resounding success. He has patented a syringe that prevents unwanted needle-pricks, a folding keyboard that was licensed by Hewlett Packard and 25 other devices from the practical to the arcane.

Now Margolin fears his ability to create is threatened by legislation he says would yank patent protections from little guys like him in favor of big corporations like Microsoft.

"The Wright Brothers — two slobs in Dayton, Ohio, who became the airline industry — Edison with his multitude of inventions, they would have all been stifled and stopped by this kind of legislation," said Margolin, who now makes a comfortable living from his inventions after years when he had to support himself through bartending and other jobs. "It would be absolutely destructive."

The Patent Reform Act of 2005, sponsored by Reps. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Howard Berman, D-Calif., includes changes supporters say are needed in a system that's processing more and more patents.

Among other things, the bill seeks to cut down on nuisance lawsuits by "patent trolls" — people who take out patents on products, methods or ideas just so they can sue a company for infringement if it eventually produces something similar.

Such lawsuits have bedeviled the high-tech industry, in part because computer technology can involve hundreds or thousands of individual patents per product. The Information Technology Industry Council says patent lawsuits in federal court doubled from 1,200 to 2,400 annually from 1998 to 2001.

The bill would make it easier for patent-holders to fight such lawsuits in potentially friendly legal venues, such as in the judicial district where they are headquartered.

Last year, 380,000 patent applications were filed at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, compared with 200,000 in 1994. The office says it has a growing backlog of 600,000 applications and a shortage of patent examiners.

"I do believe that there's a patent quality problem," Berman said, citing reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the Federal Trade Commission that reached that conclusion. "A lot of people who don't have an ax to grind think there needs to be reform."

Critics cite examples of seemingly absurd patents, such as U.S. Patent No. 5,443,036, issued for a method of using a laser pointer "in an irregular way fascinating to cats" so the animal gets aerobic exercise.

To try to ensure that patents are issued for truly innovative and novel devices, the bill includes provisions allowing patents to be challenged for nine months after they're issued, and allowing third parties to present evidence to the patent office related to pending patent applications.

Current U.S. law says a patent goes to the person who can show they first invented a device; the pending legislation would give the patent to the person who filed for it first, the method used internationally.

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