Patently-O Bits and Bytes

Congressional Action on Patent Reform:
- Senator Leahy has posted a note on his website (link) criticizing Bilski because it “needlessly left the door open for business method patents to issue in the future, and I am concerned that it will lead to more unnecessary litigation.”
- Leahy is looking at Bilski as a mechanism for driving legislative reforms: “The courts, however, are constrained by the text of our outdated statutes, and it is time for Congress to act.”
- Anti-tax-patent activists (i.e., most tax lawyers and accountants) are now thinking about pushing for a legislative exception.
EPO Count System: At a recent meeting in Edinburgh, the EPO Vice-President for legal and international affairs mentioned that EPO patent examiners receive twice as much credit for rejecting an application than for allowing the application “because, as everyone knows, a rejection takes much more work than an allowance.” (Is this correct?)
Patent law jobs posted in the past week: