Yesterday, the U.S. Senate okayed the patent reform bill that passed the House on June 23, 2011. The now almost-law goes by the "short title" name "Leahy-Smith America Invents Act". The Senate voted 89-9 in favor.
The White House hasn't issued a statement about the Senate action, but on the eve of the vote President Obama's Office of Science and Technology Policy put out a blog post that hailed the L-S AIA:
I am hopeful that the President will have the opportunity to sign this historic legislation in the coming days in support of his Strategy for American Innovation — which, above all, aims to create jobs of the future in 21st century industries. Unlocking the potential of U.S. inventors will help America out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.
Note the mention of "jobs".
To Blawgletter's eye, section 19 (of the 37-section bill) looks the most likely to affect how patent holders approach cases claiming infringement. The section deals with "jurisdiction and procedural matters", which in brief concern removing cases that involve patent issues from state to federal court and joining more than one defendant in a single case. The changes in section 19 will make removal easier and better for defendants and reduce the number of patent cases that involve a great many defendants that have nothing in common other than a claim that they infringed the same patent.