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C4IP Coalition Updates: September 2024

September was a productive month for C4IP! Here’s a roundup of all that we accomplished over the past month.

September Highlights: Advancing the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act

The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) remains one of the most important innovation policy reforms on the legislative agenda. This bill would promote research and investment in high-tech sectors such as artificial intelligence and medical diagnostics by clarifying that these categories of inventions, which were previously denied patent eligibility by erroneous Supreme Court decisions, are, in fact, eligible for patent protection. PERA would provide much-needed incentives for inventors working in emerging technology fields, ensuring that the United States tech sector remains on the cutting edge.

Originally introduced in the Senate in June 2023 by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE), this bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) and Scott Peters (D-CA) on September 6, 2024. C4IP remains invested in the passage of this vital reform and has continued to advocate for it over the past month:

  • C4IP issued a statement celebrating the introduction of the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act in the House of Representatives and reiterating the importance of this critical bill

Read it Now: “Council for Innovation Promotion Celebrates the Introduction of PERA in the House of Representatives”

Additional Coalition Updates

  • On September 25, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen published an opinion essay in IPWatchdog highlighting the misleading nature of a recent article in Science, which used a deeply flawed methodology to claim that a large percentage of inventors fail to comply with legal requirements for disclosure of federal funding.
  • On September 25, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen sent a letter to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions leaders Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) expressing C4IP’s concerns regarding the Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act.

“This proposal is ultimately based on an unfounded premise. Existing law already provides serious and significant consequences for instances of fraud. Innovators can have their patents rendered unenforceable if found to have made false statements to the USPTO.”

  • On September 24, C4IP Board Members and former Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Paul Michel and Kathleen O’Malley sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) underscoring sitting federal circuit court judges’ widespread calls for patent subject matter eligibility reform and highlighting how C4IP believes that the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) would bolster U.S. economic competitiveness.
  • On September 18, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressing C4IP’s strong support for the Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), and the Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement (IDEA) Act.

“These three bills are of vital importance to America’s continued economic prosperity and global competitiveness. We appreciate your work to place them on the Committee’s agenda in support of innovators across America, and we hope to see these bills reported favorably and become law this Congress.”

  • On September 17, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressing C4IP’s strong support for the IDEA Act and emphasizing the importance of closing demographic gaps in the U.S. patent system to promote America’s economic vitality.

“Disparities in patenting mean that the United States is not harnessing its full innovation potential… It means that more must be done to ensure that every American having an innovator’s spirit has awareness of how to protect his or her inventions, which is often the first step in developing what could be a revolutionary and job-creating discovery.”

  • On September 16, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen submitted a public comment to the USPTO expressing concerns about the agency’s July guidance update on patent subject matter eligibility and artificial intelligence and encouraging the USPTO to support more comprehensive legislative reform on patent subject matter eligibility.
  • On September 13, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen issued a statement celebrating the introduction of the Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement (IDEA) Act in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
  • On September 13, C4IP Co-Chair Andrei Iancu was quoted in a Spectrum News 1 article explaining how the IDEA Act would benefit America’s international economic competitiveness.
  • On September 12, C4IP Co-Chairs Andrei Iancu and David Kappos were quoted expressing support for the IDEA Act in Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI)’s statement announcing the bill’s introduction.
  • On September 12, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen issued a statement applauding the introduction of the bipartisan NO FAKES Act in the House of Representatives and elaborating on how it would strike a productive balance between promoting innovation and protecting creators’ rights to their own likenesses.
  • On September 10 and 11, C4IP Co-Chairs Andrei Iancu and David Kappos’s insights on the need for the RESTORE Patent Rights Act were included in blog posts from A&O Shearman, JD Supra, and Mondaq.
  • On September 9, C4IP hosted a congressional briefing on the USPTO’s recent Drug Patent and Exclusivity Study, including a guest panel with C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen, C4IP Chief Policy Officer and Counsel Jamie Simpson, University of Akron Law Professor Emily Michiko Morris, and Novartis Vice President and Global Head of IP Affairs Corey Salsberg.

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