Pending Patent Reform May Not Bring Much Lawsuit Relief

U.S. Congress is tantalizingly close to passing patent reform that President Barack Obama has hailed as an economic booster, but the legislation is expected to do little to divert money away from patent litigation and toward innovation. The Senate will vote on Sept. 6 on whether to take up a patent reform bill passed by the House in June. Senate passage seems possible that same week given that the Senate approved a similar bill by an overwhelming margin in March. The legislation would come just weeks after Google Inc. agreed to pay $12.5 billion to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. — scooping up a trove of 17,000 phone-related patents to defend against infringement lawsuits in its Android operating system.