WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker today indicated their belief that more job creation could result from the enactment of bipartisan Senate legislation to reform the American patent system.

Cochran and Wicker are among 25 Senators who have written to Majority Leader Harry Reid asking him to allow the Senate to debate and vote on the Patent Reform Act of 2009 (S.515) before the end of the 111th Congress.  The letter was led by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“In an increasingly competitive global marketplace and in an era where the American people want and need more jobs, it is time for our U.S. patent laws to be updated.  The Senate’s compromise legislation could clear the path for inventors and innovators, such as the researchers now making breakthroughs at universities in Mississippi, to bring their work to the marketplace,” Cochran said.

“We need to find ways to foster innovation and ingenuity so that American entrepreneurs have the opportunity to start up businesses and create jobs,” said Wicker. “Strengthening and streamlining our outdated patent system can help ensure that our country maintains its position as a global, economic leader.”

The bipartisan group of Senators pressing for consideration of S.515 stressed the important links between American innovation, the patent process and job creation.

“Patents granted represent jobs for the American people—jobs developing and producing new products and services, jobs bringing these products and services to the market, and jobs selling these products and services to consumers here and abroad. Strengthening our patent system and spurring innovation and investment is an action we should take now to stimulate our economy,” the Senators wrote Reid.  “Patent reform is bipartisan legislation supported by the Administration that will improve the economy and create jobs without adding to the deficit. We urge you to schedule the Managers’ Amendment for debate as soon as possible.”

Among other reforms, the Patent Reform Act of 2009 would expedite and expand the patent system to improve global competitiveness and reform the patent appeals and infringement processes.

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