In a hearing yesterday before the Joint Economic Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke answered questions about the economic outlook of the United States. The majority of the hearing focused on the financial industry bailout, the credit crisis, and the forthcoming results of the “stress analysis” of the country’s largest banks.

Somewhat suprisingly, there was an interesting patent-related exchange between Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) and Chairman Bernanke. Congressman Cummings asked

“Is there anything you see that the Obama Administration might be able to do, or that we might be able to do, to encourage innovation….?”

In response, Chairman Bernanke offered several policy-related ideas, including detailed thoughts on the “controversial” idea of encouraging immigration of highly skilled scientists and engineers to the United States.

He also mentioned patent reform, albeit with measured indifference:

“There are reviews and thinking about the patent laws and those sorts of things to make those more effective.”

That quote is the entirety of Chairman Bernanke’s patent-related response to the innovation question posed by Congressman Cummings. There’s not much that can be read into this brief statement, other than the fact that Chairman Bernanke is aware of the patent reform issue and its relationship to the policy issue of “encouraging innovation.” Chairman Bernanke is obviously a highly-skilled Congressional witness and was visibly careful in his choice of words on this issue. Nothing relating to a position of the Federal Reserve, the Obama Administration, or Chairman Bernanke can be inferred from this brief remark.

You can view Chairman Bernanke’s response to “the innovation question” in the CNBC video below – it starts at about the 10 minute mark.

Hat tip to a Twitter friend @TechLaw_Elman for pointing me to Chairman Bernanke’s comments.