Maryland Intellectual Property Lawyer & Attorney : Brian Wm. Higgins : Serving Baltimore, Columbia, Frederick

• IPO Predicts Senate May Attempt to Pass Patent Reform Bill in February

According to the Intellectual Property Owners Association website earlier this week, the "IPO believes Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) will attempt to pass a revised version of S. 1145 [the Patent Reform Act of 2007] in the Senate in February. Major amendments likely will not be available more than a few days in advance of Senate consideration. It is unclear whether the Senate has the votes to pass a bill. If the Senate does pass a bill, it likely will be sent to the House for swift passage by the House without amendments, eliminating the need for a Senate-House conference." 

See this earlier post that discusses some of the obstacles to major patent reform.

• Chart Compares Senate and House Versions

Thanks to lawyer Mark Walters over at the Washington State Patent Law blog for pointing out a useful side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate versions of patent reform legislation currently pending in Congress. The comparison, in the form of a chart, was apparently put together by Foley Hoag last year (so it does not benefit from the Senate's recent Judiciary Committee report) and is available from the Licensing Executive Society website.

• Patent reform comparisons on this blog

     For coverage and comparisons of the patent reform legislation on this blog, see the following previous Patent Reform Act posts: Part 8: Attorney misconduct; Part 7: Submission of prior art search reports; Part 5: 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) (Part II); Part 4: 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) (Part I); Part 3: 35 U.S.C. § 102(a).

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     Several sources (see 271 Blog, for example) are reporting that another obstacle facing patent reform was overcome yesterday when the Senate Judiciary Committee reported on S. 1145, the Patent Reform Act of 2007. According to the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), the "106-page draft report explains in depth the provisions of the bill as approved by the Senate on July 19, 2007, but does not contain any new or compromise provisions."

     So, will patent reform actually happen this year, as some predict? Gene Quinn over at the PLI Blog notes that "patent legislation usually has a gestation period of between 2 to 3 years, and given that Congress began working seriously on some form of patent reform in 2005 the timing is right." On the other hand, industry associations, individuals, and other stakeholders have been pulling Congressional ears in different directions as long as patent reform legislation has been around, so I'm not sure that we'll see significant patent reforms, especially when you consider that several contentious provisions are still present in the Senate bill. However, it seems likely that at least some reforms will be seen this year, as long as Congress doesn't wait too long and get distracted by the election cycle, and some of those anticipated "compromise provisions" make their way into the legislation before the Senate votes.

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