Goodlatte, Nadler Support Innovation Act's Patent Reform Provisions at Thursday Hearing

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said his recently reintroduced Innovation Act (HR-9) is a necessary “updated and modernized statute” for patent reform, in an opening statement Thursday at a House Judiciary IP Subcommittee hearing on recent patent-related cases at the Supreme Court. “Many of the provisions in the Innovation Act do not necessarily lend themselves to being solved by case law, but by actual law -- congressional legislation,” Goodlatte said. The Patent and Trademark Office shouldn’t “simply be in the business of granting patents and leaving the mess created for the courts and Congress to fix, but rather focus on strengthening the requirements for patent eligibility to reduce the overall number of weak or overly broad patents from entering the system,” he said. HR-9 addresses the “patent trolls, which continue to burden businesses across the country with abusive patent litigation,” said subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., in an opening statement. “A smartphone can contain hundreds of patents -- on everything from touch-screen technology to cameras to GPS mapping,” he said “There is also a patent for that. And worse, we are finding there is a patent troll for that too.” Several groups expressed support for HR-9 upon its introduction, including CEA, NAB and NCTA (see 1502050036).