U.S. senators to introduce patent bill next week

* Reform would be modeled on compromised reached last year

* Bill will be formally introduced on Tuesday

WASHINGTON Jan 20 (Reuters) - A group of senators will introduce patent legislation next week designed to prevent outsized damages in patent infringement litigation.

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, and Republicans Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley, said in a statement on Thursday that the bill to be introduced Tuesday would be similar to a compromise reached in the Senate Judiciary Committee early last year.

Big computer and hardware firms, facing expensive patent infringement lawsuits, have pushed for years for patent law changes. But the effort has been opposed by big drug companies, some smaller technology firms and others dependent on small portfolios of patents.

The compromise reached last year would require judges hearing patent infringement cases to play a gatekeeper role in helping identify appropriate damages.

A patent reform bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives in late 2007, but stalled in the Senate.

The bill to be introduced next week would also give patents to the first inventor to file with the patent office. Other provisions aim to prevent bad patents from being issued by allowing third parties to provide information on why an application should be rejected.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has asked for the right to set its own fees in order to hire more examiners and upgrade technology so it can chip away at a massive backlog of patent applications.

The bill would give the patent office authority to set fees, but requires that the smallest applicants get relief on application fees.

"Patent reform is a commonsense, bipartisan effort to protect jobs and bolster the economy," Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. "This will be the first piece of legislation considered by the Judiciary Committee this year, and I hope the Senate will act promptly on this job-creating bill. Action by Congress can no longer be delayed." (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)