Reform of the US patent system is not normally a crowd-pleaser in Congress. But when a House subcommittee held a hearing on the topic, the room was full.

"The patent issue is moving to the centre of economic policy formulation in this Congress," says Dan Spiegel, counsel to the Coalition for 21st-Century Patent Reform, a group of pharmaceutical manufacturers and big names including GE, 3M and Johnson & Johnson. "Democrats work with Republicans on this in ways that are not seen in other areas."