By Charlie Sauer in The Hill

The newly elected Republican majority appears intent on moving a broad patent reform bill in the first few weeks of the new Congress.  In that context, the Congressional Budget Office recently released a paper that, while outlining the importance of innovation for future economic growth, tries to justify the need for patent reform – perhaps in an attempt to curry favor with the incoming Senate majority.  However, like Cinderella’s stepsisters trying to squeeze into a glass shoe that doesn’t fit, the CBO director has a problem fitting the facts of his research into the probable congressional outcome – weaker patents. 

The primary issue with CBO’s research which proves that innovation is good is their conclusion regarding patent litigation -- that the federal government should do more to protect defendants. In this conclusion, the CBO makes it clear that they just fundamentally don’t understand patents or more specifically the business case for patents.