During today’s discussion at the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) on patent quality KEI make four points in its intervention.
1. WIPO should consider gathering information on the costs of litigation to challenge the validity of patents.
2. WIPO should consider creating a database to share information on the cases where litigation has resulted findings that patent claims as invalid.
3. WIPO should consider systems whereby a presumption of patent or patent claim validity would change if a claim was found to be invalid as a consequence of litigation in another country.
4. Debates over patent quality have not changed much since the 19th Century. At some point, people may want to consider the strategies that are necessary to deal with patents that are predictably of poor quality. It is just not possible to eliminate all poor quality patents. Thus, methods of coping with bad patents should be part of the patent system.