House Passes Bill to Revamp Patent Process
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The legislation, supported by technology and financial services companies, would limit damage awards for patent infringement and grant patents to the first inventor to file an application.
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The Massachusetts House of Representatives yesterday voted to fix a glitch in state environmental law that held billion-dollar implications for developers and land owners.
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(InfoWorld) - TheÂ U.S. congressman who chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee says Congress could pass an immigration reform bill by July, including lifting the limit on how many high-tech engineers can come to the U.S. for jobs. Representative Howard Berman, a Democrat from California, made the prediction while speaking at the first ever Tech Industry Summit in San Jose, California. "It could pass both houses by July, go to conference, and be on the president's desk by September," Berman said. Immigration reform deals largely with the 12 million illegal immigrants living and working in the U.S., but another provision of the bill affects technology companies in particular. Tech companies want the limit on H1-B visas raised to 115,000 per year, from 65,000, a limit that has already been reached for 2007. H1-B is the type of visa granted to skilled foreign workers in "specialty occupations," including IT, so that they can work in the U.S. "There is significant urgency on this issue," said Pamela Passman, vice president of global corporate affairs for Microsoft, also speaking at the summit. About half the students enrolled in engineering schools in the U.S. are foreign nationals who have to return to their home countries after earning their degrees, depriving U.S. companies of the chance to hire them,Â  Passman said. Republican President George W. Bush proposed a guest worker program for illegal immigrants, but opposition from within his own party kept the legislation from passing in 2006. Now, with Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and Democrats generally endorsing the guest worker program, passage is more likely, Berman said. Berman is chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, which will be considering patent reform legislation. Tech companies have long complained about people who buy up patents just to collect license fees, but many small inventors own patents and don't have the means to bring the patented products to market, so they license the patents to others. Reform is also expected to focus on the quality of patents granted. Tech groups have pushed for better funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a post-patent review process as a way to challenge patents that may not be deserved. "I think determining validity and infringement could be settled more quickly in a nonfederal court system environment," said Berman. The Tech Policy Summit is expected to draw 300 people to Silicon Valley, including technology industry figures, organizers of technology lobbying groups in Washington, D.C., and lawmakers. Technology companies had not been active in lobbying the federal government 20 years ago but have been forced to get involved as Internet-related issues like privacy protection, cybersecurity, and intellectual property disputes have emerged, said Gary Fazzino, vice president of governmental affairs at Hewlett-Packard.
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Just two days after the House version of a sweeping patent reform bill passed the US House of Representatives by a voice vote - meaning the supporters were obviously louder than the opponents - the bill as reported to the Senate swept through the Judiciary Committee, most likely with very few amendments.
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The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill designed to boost federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, defying a veto threat by President George W. Bush.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. House of Representatives hasÂ passed a bill to overhaul the nation's patent system, overcoming objections by many Republicans, small inventors and some labor unions. Passed on Friday, the Patent Reform Act,Â supported by several large tech vendors including Microsoft and IBM, would allow courts to change they way they assess damages in patent infringement cases. Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent; the bill would allow, but not require, courts to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece. The bill would also allow a new way to challenge patents within one year after they've been granted. The HouseÂ passedÂ the ActÂ by a vote of 225-175. The Senate has not yet acted on a similar piece of legislation. However, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a statement on Thursday saying it opposes the bill. It said that the changes in assessment of damages would "introduce new complications and risks reducing incentives to innovate." The OMB objections raise the possibility that President George Bush could veto the legislation. Large tech vendors have been pushing for patent reform for close to five years. The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the Business Software Alliance, and the Computing Technology Industry Association, all praised the House for passing the bill. House passage is a "significant step toward improving our patent system," said Mark Bohannon, SIIA's senior vice president of public policy. Asked about the OMB's opposition to the bill, Bohannon said recent changes have addressed many concerns. Apportionment of damages, one of the OMB's major concerns, needs to change, he added. "If we don't address the problem, we're not going to improve the system," he said. Many Democrats and some Republicans argued the bill is needed because patent infringement lawsuits have gotten out of hand. It's too easy for patent holders to sue and collect huge damage awards when a small piece of a tech product is found to infringe, supporters argued. The patent system "is getting near broken," said Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat and primary sponsor of the bill. "Doing nothing is not a good answer for a Congress that wants the economy strong." Opponents argued the bill favors tech giants at the expense of small inventors. "The legislation ... helps a small group of powerful people," said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican. Representative Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat, noted that between 1993 and 2005, four major tech vendors supporting the bill paid out US$3.5 billion in patent infringement settlements. But those same unnamed tech vendors had revenues of $1.4 trillion during that time period, she said. Tech vendors want to reduce patent infringement costs "not by changing their obviously unfair and often illegal business practices, but by persuading Congress and the Supreme Court to weaken U.S. patent protections," she said. "We ought to stand up for American inventors." The bill also sets into motion a change in the way patents are awarded, from the first-to-invent system unique to the U.S. to the first-to-file system used by the rest of the world.
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House of Reps. approve smaller fines in copyright spats A new US law which would reduce the damages to be paid out for patent infringement has been passed by one half of the US legislature. The proposed law was backed by large technology firms and banks but opposed by smaller tech companies and drug companies.â¦
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House Republicans pushed through legislation Tuesday aimed at reducing frivolous lawsuits.
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Legislation designed to overhaul the U.S. patent system was approved by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
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The House of Representatives voted  on Wednesday to revise how the federal government reviews  foreign takeovers of U.S. companies, sending the legislation to  the White House.
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The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a huge corporate tax bill aimed at ending a trade dispute with the European Union while giving American manufacturers a new tax break.
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Patent overhaul legislation thatÂ passed the U.S. House of Representatives FridayÂ still faces significant opposition as it heads to the Senate, opponents said.
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The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation to promote the development of alternative biofuels and create the infrastructure to handle the supplies.
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The House of Representatives passed   a bill on Thursday that would provide congressional   authorization for President George W. Bush's warrantless   domestic spying program but subject it to new rules.
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As debate on patent reform began this morning on the floor of the US House of Representatives, twelve amendments made their way through the Rules Committee, all of which appear to be designed to tweak the bill's language rather than insert any "poison pills" that would ensure its failure.
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U.S. lawmakers returning from their summer break are expected to consider patent law changes that have pitted two of America's most invention-dependent industries against each other.
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A U.S. House of Representatives committee voted on Thursday to give the Food and Drug Administration more power to monitor the side effects of medicines after they reach the market.