House Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte Introduces Innovation Act, Drawing Praise From Tech Groups

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced the Innovation Act Thursday, alongside several House members. HR-9 “contains commonsense reforms and makes the patent litigation process more transparent,” said Goodlatte in a statement. It said the bill is identical to HR-3309, which the House passed in 2013. It would require “plaintiffs to disclose who the owner of a patent is before litigation” and to “explain why they are suing a company in their court pleadings,” it said. CEA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, NAB, NCTA, Public Knowledge, TechNet, Software & Information Industry Association and Verizon released statements in support of the bill. The bill would weaken and devalue "the patents of all inventors working throughout America’s innovation economy,” said Adam Mossoff, senior scholar of the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at George Mason University, in a statement. “It broadly revises the entire American patent system by creating unprecedented hurdles for all owners of patented innovation who seek redress in court against infringers of their property rights.”