Senate Approves the America Invents Act of 2011 (H.R. 1249).
The Senate has voted and passed the America Invents Act of 2011 (H.R. 1249) without amendment. We are one step closer to having a new “law of the land”, as Senator Leahy termed it, with respect to patents in the United States. H.R. 1249 will now be delivered to the President’s desk, where the America Invents Act of 2011 will be signed into law.
Senator Maria Cantwell may have said it best: “This is not a patent reform bill. This is a big corporation patent give away that tramples on the rights of small inventors.” It’s certainly a shame that Sen. Coburn’s amendment didn’t stand a chance. But considering the current political climate, I suppose it’s not surprising.