IP Law Daily, PATENT NEWS—RESTORE Patent Rights Act introduced in Congress, (Aug 2, 2024)

By Nadine E. Roddy, J.D.

The bipartisan bill would restore the historic presumption of entitlement to permanent injunctive relief upon a judicial finding of patent infringement.

On July 30, Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced the Realizing Engineering, Science, and Technology Opportunities by Restoring Exclusive (RESTORE) Patent Rights Act of 2024, a bipartisan bill that would restore the presumption that a patent holder is entitled to a permanent injunction upon entry of a final judgment of infringement of a right secured by the patent. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Representatives Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) and Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.).

Constitutional right historically protected. Noting that the Constitution empowers Congress to grant inventors the “exclusive Right” to their inventions in order to “promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts,” Section 2 of the bill states that Congress and the federal courts have long secured this right through the traditional equitable remedy of an injunction. Given the irreparable harm caused by multiple acts of infringement or willful infringement of a patent, courts historically presumed that an injunction should be granted to prevent such unlawful acts, with the burden placed on the defendant to rebut the presumption using standard equitable defenses. In recent years, however, courts have ended this historical equitable practice, with harmful results.

Supreme Court changes historic practice. Senator Coons explains that this practice was upended by the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in eBay v. MercExchange, which created a four-factor test—which must be met by the patent holder—to determine whether a permanent injunction is warranted in infringement cases. Application of this test has made it significantly more difficult to obtain injunctive relief in such cases. The Senator points to a recent study that found that requests for permanent injunctions in patent cases fell by 65% for companies that use their patented technology to manufacture a product, and that grants of permanent injunctions to those companies fell by an even greater amount. Requests and grants for licensing patent owners such as universities and research clinics dropped even further: requests fell by 85% and grants by 90%.

Restoration of presumption. The remedy, set forth in Section 3 of the bill, would add the following provision to Section 283 of Title 35 of the U.S. Code: “If, in a case under this title, the court enters a final judgment finding infringement of a right secured by patent, the patent owner shall be entitled to a rebuttable presumption that the court should grant a permanent injunction with respect to that infringing conduct.”

According to Senator Coons, this provision would undo the damage of the Supreme Court’s eBay decision by returning to patent owners a rebuttable presumption that an injunction is warranted after a court makes a final ruling that their rights are being infringed. Restoration of this presumption would deter predatory infringers and return meaning to the constitutional right to exclude.

According to the bill’s sponsors, the RESTORE Patent Rights Act is endorsed by the Innovation Alliance, Alliance of U.S. Startups & Inventors for Jobs, Association of University Technology Managers, Council for Innovation Promotion, Americans for Limited Government, Eagle Forum, Market Institute, and Conservatives for Property Rights.

News: IndustryNewsTrends Patent GCNNews