At today’s Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, “Protecting Small Businesses and Promoting Innovation by Limiting Patent Troll Abuse,” Senator Schumer explained why we need to make the Covered Business Method Review program more widely available: I couldn’t have said it better myself. Transcript of video:
Tag Archive for Schumer
Momentum Increases for Expanding Covered Business Method Review
by Matt Levy •

I’ve told you before why any attempt to deal with patent trolls has to include an expansion of the Covered Business Method (CBM) review program. (Here, here and here.) Short version: This expansion would allow the USPTO to review more business method patents that are being asserted through litigation or threats of litigation. It’s cheaper…
The STOP Act in the House Looks to Deal With Bad Software Patents
by Matt Levy •

Congress continues to focus on the patent troll problem. Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Judy Chu (D-CA) have just introduced the Stopping the Offensive Use of Patents Act (STOP Act) to expand the Covered Business Method review program at the PTO. This bipartisan bill is very similar to the Patent Quality Improvement Act that Senator Schumer…
Roundup of This Week’s Patent News: June 14 Edition
by Ali Sternburg •
Hi there! No, this week wasn’t quite as eventful as last week. (If you missed the big patent news, check out last week’s roundup.) But we still have some news you don’t want to miss. First up, on Saturday June 8, our own Matt Levy’s Letter to the Editor was published in the New York Times, in…
How Covered Business Method Review Can Help Beat Back the Trolls
by Matt Levy •
The term “Covered Business Method” seems a bit dry, but if you’re interested in making life tougher for patent trolls you’ll get acquainted with it. Last week, I focused on one of the Obama Administration’s Executive Actions: the effort to tighten functional claiming. That Executive Action is directed to stopping the flow of new, overbroad…
Patent Fixes Pick up Steam in Congress
by Dan O'Connor •
(Cross post on DisCo) What a difference a year makes in Congress. Last year, Reps. DeFazio (D-OR) and Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced the Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act. The bill generated some attention in the press, but never made it onto the campaign year legislative agenda. Then we hit a tipping point…
Schumer Proposes Expansion of Covered Business Method Program
by Matt Schruers •
Today Senator Schumer announced a proposal to expand the “covered business method” program instituted at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the 2011 America Invents Act (AIA). That initiative, which took effect in September of last year, led to new rules to allow threatened businesses to formally challenge the validity of dubious patents before…