The America Invents Act of 2011 was designed to provide a durable overhaul of the U.S. patent system, but the inter partes review (IPR) process has drawn fire from inventors as a patent-killing machine. The Senate is considering a new bill to address some of these concerns, but witnesses at a hearing this week were anything but united in their assessment of the status quo, making it difficult to forecast the fate of this latest effort at patent reform.