WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Senate is expected to debate the patent reform bill as early as this week. This comes on the heels of a court decision to block new rules the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proposed to deal with the surge of applications.

Majority leader Sen. Harry Reid is expected to bring the Patent Reform Act to the Senate between now and the end of May.

The Senate bill is in line with the House of Representatives bill that passed in the fall. Both bills aim to limit damages and excessive litigation, namely courts that are quick to set trial dates for patent suits. The legislation also requests the U.S. to move to a first-to-file policy.

Many large electronics firms are on board, claiming to be barraged with patent infringement litigation. Individual inventors and pharmaceutical companies have rallied against the measure, saying it would weaken the system that protects their innovations.

In its fiscal year 2007, the USPTO received more than 467,000 patent applications and ended the year with a backlog of 760,000 applications. In an effort to catch up, the office hired more than 2,400 new patent examiners in the past two years, say published reports.

WASHINGTON, DC – AeA reports that in 2007, the high-tech industry continued growing, adding 91,400 net jobs for a total of 5.9 million in the U.S. This is on top of job gains of 139,000 in 2006 and 87,400 in 2005.

BEDFORD, UK – Briton EMS has expanded into a plant that is double the size of its Caxton Park manufacturing site, and added an SMT line to meet growing demand. 

The expanded site is now 22,000 sq. ft.

The new line includes a Speedprint stencil printer, Mydata MY19E placement machine, a Heller oven and Nutek handlers.