Shapiro Praises Senate for 'Tackling' Patent Reform in Consecutive Days of Hearings

The Senate deserves praise for again "tackling" patent reform, CEA President Gary Shapiro said, citing hearings Wednesday and Thursday to study what he said was “the impact of abusive patent litigation practices have on American businesses.” Since Congress last acted on patent reform legislation in December 2013, “patent trolls have bled over $100 billion from the U.S. economy,” Shapiro said Thursday in a statement. “And with each week that passes, trolls send more demand letters to small businesses and startups, and drain another $1.5 billion from our economy. The immense amount of money spent fighting bogus patent lawsuits amounts to a massive tax for over 80 percent of victims who are startups or small and medium businesses. Blatant patent extortion needs to be stopped.” Wednesday’s hearing was before the Senate Judiciary Committee (see 1503180042), and Thursday’s was before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Shapiro has identified patent reform as one of CEA’s highest legislative priorities and has been outspokenly critical of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. for “single-handedly” killing patent reform legislation in the last Congress (see 1411050022).