The House of Representatives just passed a (rather weak) bill to reign in patent trolls:

The Innovation Act, a bill with measures aimed to stop “patent troll” lawsuits, passed the US House of Representatives this morning on a 325-91 vote. Several amendments that would have stripped out key parts of the bill were defeated.

Passage of the bill is a big step for patent reformers, which would have been hard to imagine even one year ago. However, patent trolls going after “Main Street” businesses like grocery stores and coffee shops have made headlines and enraged politicians from Vermont to California.

Majorities of representatives in both parties supported the bill. On the Republican side, 195 representatives voted in favor of the bill and 27 voted against, while 130 Democrats supported the bill and 64 opposed it. The White House has said it supports the bill, which must first pass the US Senate.

The key politician pushing the bill ahead thus far has been Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The most prominent opponent has been Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the most senior Democratic member of that committee.

If passed in its current form, the bill will add to transparency in patent litigation and require patent holders to reveal who is profiting from a lawsuit. It will also allow lawsuits against customers to be stayed in certain circumstances and will require fee-shifting to the prevailing party in most patent cases.

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Stronger action on demand letters is something that proponents of legislation may try to add in on the Senate side. Opponents, meanwhile, will still be looking to stall or kill the bill entirely.

The biggest change to the bill thus far has been the removal of an expanded review program, which could challenge business method patents at the patent office. That plank was strongly desired by anti-troll advocates, since it could have greatly lowered the cost of fighting some patents. But several key tech companies with large patent portfolios, including Microsoft and IBM, were opposed to the expansion of the review program and would likely not have supported the bill if that provision had remained.

This bill is weak tea, particularly with the “lame-ass patent review” provision being stripped from the program, but it passed by an overwhelming vote, which indicates that the political calculus is moving in the right direction.