The U.S. House of Representatives approved a major bill today to alter patent law after agreeing to several amendments, including a few that were high on the agenda for colleges.

Still, passage of the bill, HR 1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007, will not end the lobbying. Rather, it will now shift to the Senate, where companion legislation, S 1145, with some different provisions, has been passed by the Judiciary Committee but has yet to reach the Senate floor.

The House bill includes many provisions that higher-education associations say will improve the nation’s economic competitiveness. It also incorporates changes sought by colleges to allow academics to continue to publish their findings without jeopardizing their rights to patent them.

During debate on Friday, lawmakers also agreed to another change urged by higher-education officials. It would eliminate a proposal that would have expanded the rights of companies to claim “prior user rights” as a defense against infringement lawsuits. Universities had been concerned that such a change would have undercut their ability to enforce patents, because companies could claim that they were within their rights to use the patented inventions by claiming that they had been developed as “trade secrets.”

But the legislation adopted today, by a vote of 220 to 175, still contains a provision, opposed by college lobbyists, that would change how damages are awarded in infringement lawsuits. Higher-education associations made their positions known in a letter sent this week to the House leaders most involved in the debate. —Goldie Blumenstyk