House backs patent reform
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WASHINGTON - Technology and financial services firms won a key patent reform victory yesterday when the House approved legislation, 220 to 175, that the industries have pushed for years.
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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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Tomorrow morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a new round of hearings continuing the debate over language in S. 1145, the Patent Reform Act of 2007. This morning, a coalition of firms ranging in stature from the Guymon, Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce to Apple, Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft urged Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D - Vt.) to get the debate portion over with.
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Key House panel is all for introducing a patent reform bill, but agreeing on details could prove a daunting task.
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For the third time, the House easily passed legislation today that would loosen President Bush's six-year-old restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.
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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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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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The House Committee on the Judiciary approved far-reaching legislation to reform the nation's patent system Wednesday.
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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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What just last year generated legislative deadlock for a deeply divided Congress, has this year sailed through the House of Representatives after just a few hours of modest debate: H.R. 1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007, has passed the House with at least some measure of bipartisan support.
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The Patents (Third) Amendment Bill, which might be tabled in Parliament during the coming winter session, is a Bill which will pave the way for a new patent law.
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 18  â The House approved a plan on Tuesday to expand federal backing of mortgages in hopes of helping struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.
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The House of Representatives on  Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a business-backed bill that  would tighten rules for federal review of foreign takeovers of  U.S. companies without discouraging such investments.
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Emboldened by their election successes, House Republicans changed their rules yesterday to allow majority leader Tom
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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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The House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a $146 billion election-year economic stimulus plan backed by President George W. Bush.
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(InfoWorld) - A group of five Republican senators is seeking a delay in legislation, supported by several large tech vendors, that would overhaul the U.S. patent system. The five, including Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sam Brownback of Kansas, have asked for more hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee moves ahead with the Patent Reform Act, which is scheduled to be amended and approved in a Thursday hearing. The five sent a letter Monday to the Judiciary Committee asking for more hearings. "Many prominent American businesses on the cutting edge of innovation are expressing concerns about the impact of sweeping patent reform," said the letter, also signed by Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Jon Kyl of Arizona and Jeff Sessions of Alabama. "These concerns merit thoughtful deliberation." Many observers have called the Patent Reform Act the most sweeping reform of U.S. patent laws in decades. The bill would make it tougher for inventors to obtain new patents, make it easier to challenge patents, and reduce the legal penalties for patent violations. Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. have praised the bill, saying it's too easy for the owners of questionable patents to sue tech companies and collect large damages or shut down entire product lines with court injunctions when one small piece of a product allegedly infringes a patent. "This important measure ensures that our patent system continues to foster innovation and economic growth by promoting improvements in patent quality [and] discouraging litigation abuse," Microsoft said in a statement when the bill was introduced. But five Republican senators raised concerns about the bill, echoed by some small tech companies and other members of the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, a group calling for less sweeping changes to the U.S. patent system. The senators questioned the bill's attempt to apportion patent award damages. The bill would limit the damages a patent holder can collect when an infringing technology is part of a larger product, based on the value of the patented technology itself, instead of the value of the larger product. Courts now generally consider the value of the larger product when assessing damages. The senators also questioned the bill's provisions to allow new ways to challenge patents after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted them. These changes "need to be more carefully examined to ensure that they do not undermine innovation, increase frivolous litigation, or undermine property rights," the letter said. The letter also calls on the committee to look harder at ways to improve patent quality.