PATENT REFORM PROSPECTS CLOUDY

Abstract

PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack H. Obama’s support for a number of tech-friendly initiatives, including reform of the decades-old U.S. patent system, translated into generous campaign contributions from Silicon Valley’s technology companies. The computer and Internet industry contributed five times as much to Obama’s presidential campaign than to his Republican opponent Sen. John McCain’s—$7.3 million compared with $1.4 million—according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a group that tracks money in politics. Overall, computer makers and software developers donated more than $19 million to Democratic candidates for federal office in the just-concluded 2007–08 election cycle, whereas Republicans received only about $11 million. But whether the high-tech sectors’ lopsided support for the newly elected president and the strengthened Democratic majorities on Capitol Hill can break the current legislative deadlock and push patent reform over the finish line in the upcoming 111th Congress is far from certain, intel...