Brian Prentice

I’m all for reforming the patent system. But that doesn’t mean I’m all for the Patent Reform Act of 2009.

While I think some of the proposals have merit the proposed legislation as a whole looks like it’s been custom designed to serve the needs of a specific set of businesses. And when some of those businesses, like Google, Cisco, and Intel are also big political donors we enter the area of political patronage that guys like Larry Lessig have been demanding gets changed.

The result is likely to be a standoff as those interests adversely affected oppose this vision of “patent reform.” It’s lobbyists at twenty paces! And when the dust settles we’ll still have a deeply flawed patent system. The only question really being debated is who incurs the most pain.

This isn’t even like swapping desk chairs on the Titanic. It’s like demanding an upgrade to a suite when the ship is starting to sink.

The patent system is failing to keep up with a the rapid changes in technology and business models and the resulting new industries emerging in a globalized economy. These problems affect everyone. I’d appreciate it if President Obama – in the interest of “changing the old way of doing business in Washington” – would tell the bickering industry groups to sit down in the same room and determine a set of issues that everyone agrees need to be addressed.

President Obama should be promising a swift veto of any patent reform legislation that doesn’t represent a cross-industry consensus.

Now that’s change I can believe in!