New Patent Law Would Trash Disease Cures

By Matthew Herper in Forbes

If you listen to large tech companies, they will tell you they are in dire need of another bailout from scary “patent trolls” who burden them with frivolous lawsuits. This tech bailout will come in the form of a bill that would weaken 225 years of U.S. patent law to help big companies always win, and guarantee that small innovators and inventors will always lose.

The United States’ patent law system is at the foundation of American global success, found in breakthrough discoveries from Edison to the computer chip to recombinant DNA. Do we really need to “fix” the legal system that has enabled America to become number one in the global biotech, software, hardware, medical devices, energy, genomics, and nanotechnology industries? Patent filings are down an astonishing 40% in 2014 as a result of the first patent troll “fix” a few years ago and recent court decisions that have given away our nation’s competitive edge.