Innovation is high now under current eligibility jurisprudence
David Jones, 2024 – executive director of the High Tech Inventors Alliance. Questions for the Record from Senator Thom Tillis , Hearing on “The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act – Restoring Clarity, Certainty, and Predictability to the U.S. Patent System” 1/24, https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2024-01-23_-_qfr_responses_-_jones.pdf
a. How has the current state of patent eligibility inhibited the development of next generation technologies?
The current state of patent eligibility hasn’t inhibited the development of next generation technologies. HTIA member companies are at the forefront of technologies like AI and quantum computing, are among the largest patent owners in the world, and have experienced no negative effects from the current jurisprudence. In fact, the available data suggest that current patent eligibility law has advanced the development of next generation technologies.
b. What is the long-term technological and economic impact of the current eligibility jurisprudence?
Both the long-term technological and economic impacts are strongly positive. For further discussion, please see my written testimony and my prior testimony to the Subcommittee.1
c. Can you quantify, in easy to understand terms, the economic impact of the current state of patent eligibility?
A recent study confirmed that there has been “a positive association between Alice and both R&D spending by software firms and patenting by firms that held relatively more software patents prior to the Court’s opinion.”2 So, the impact has been positive for innovation, which is positive for long-term economic growth.