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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     Peter Zura suggested in his article "R.I.P. Patent Reform" (271 Patent Blog) that the Senate will not take action on the Patent Reform Act of 2007, S. 1145, this year. His prediction is based on comments by Matthew Sandgren, counsel to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), that were presented at a speech in Washington, D.C. in early November. Peter noted that the biggest sticking points preventing a full Senate vote today are the second window of post-grant review and apportionment of damages provisions. The FDANews Drug Daily Bulletin for Nov. 19, posted a similar summary of Sandgren's comments. The Intellectual Property Owners Association reportedly expects the Senate will consider patent reform in February 2008. 

     The BNA Daily Report for Executives, Nov. 7 and 16, 2007 (subscription required), and other sources suggest that the following stakeholders have been or are still opposed to portions of the Patent Reform Act, and many may continue to yield as much influence as possible to win over Senators: the venture capital industry (at least 30 members who sent Senators a letter earlier in November); Innovation Alliance; American Bar Association's Intellectual Property Law Section; AFL-CIO; Paul R. Michel, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; The Patent Officials Professional Association (the union representing patent examiners); Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, whose members include the American Intellectual Property Law Association, as well as companies from the manufacturing, information technology, consumer products, energy, financial services, medical products, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries.

     Of course, there are many in favor of the current bill, and would love to see an up vote sooner rather than later. Certain technology companies strongly back patent reform legislation because of provisions they see as leveling the playing field in lawsuits brought by non-practicing entities and so-called "patent trolls."

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     During the floor debate in Congress over H.R.1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007, on September 7, 2007, Maryland’s 6th District Representative, Roscoe G. Bartlett, a Republican, rose to criticize last-minute efforts by colleagues whom he contends pushed amendments to the proposed legislation through the House of Representatives.  Apparently, those amendments found their way into the legislation in the late evening hours the night before the full House vote (no doubt by overworked staffers). Dr. Bartlett knows a few things about patents: a scientist himself, one of only three in the House of Representatives, he is the named inventor or co-inventor on several U.S. patents, including those listed below. Of the eight Maryland Representatives in Congress, Bartlett was the only one to vote against passage of H.R.1908 (see related post here). For those interested, the amendments to H.R. 1908 may be viewed here (then scroll down to the 1:33 pm entry).

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     The table below shows how Maryland was represented on the House floor during yesterday's vote on passage of H.R.1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007. 

Comments:

• To see how other legislators voted, click on Final Vote Results for Roll Call 863
  
  
• The see the resolution that was approved by an earlier vote, click on House Report 110-319
  
  
• Click on the Patent Reform Act link to the right for more on this topic

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     The House of Representatives today voted to pass H.R.1908, which is entitled the "Patent Reform Act of 2007."  The final vote, covered live by C-SPAN this afternoon, was 220 in favor of passage, 175 against. The House Report 110-319 can be found here, and includes several Amendments not included in the introduced version of the bill.

Comments:

• Attention now turns to the Senate to see if patent reform will finally see passage in Congress after three years of debate
  
  
• To illustrate how divisive patent reform has become, one Representative called H.R.1908 the "Steal America's Inventions Act" during the debate

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