U.S. Senators Fine-Tuning Patent Bill
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New legislation would make it harder to obtain a new patent, easier to challenge patents, and less expensive to violate a patent.
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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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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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Legislation designed to overhaul the U.S. patent system was approved by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
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Some tech groups are beginning to worry that major IT industry priorities, including patent reform, may lose out to other priorities in the U.S. Congress this year.
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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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(InfoWorld) - A group of U.S. senators has introduced legislation that aims to improve how U.S. workers and industries compete against the rest of the world by pumping more money into math and science programs. The bill, introduced Monday by Sen. John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, combines the efforts of several Senate committees working to address U.S. competitiveness. The bill would double the $5.6 billion annual funding for the U.S. NSF (National Science Foundation), a major backer of scientific research in the United States, and it would create a grant programs to help students struggling with mathematics. Many U.S. tech firms have called on Congress to address U.S. competitiveness by pumping more money into math and science programs. Some tech vendors, including Microsoft, have also called on Congress to increase the annual cap on foreign skilled worker visas, although tech worker groups have opposed such a move. "When it comes to innovation, America's entrepreneurs have led the way," Ensign said in a statement. "To keep our competitive edge, we need to embrace technology and ensure that our children receive a stronger education in the core subjects of mathematics and science." The legislation, with cosponsors including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, comes as two congressional committees host hearings on U.S. competitiveness. On Wednesday, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on U.S. competitiveness, and on the same day, leaders of six tech trade groups will testify before the House Small Business Committee. The bill, called the American Competes Act, would:  -- Increase the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science budget from $3.6 billion in the U.S. government's 2006 fiscal year to $5.2 billion in 2011. -- Create the Innovation Acceleration Research Program, directing federal agencies that fund research in science and technology to set goals of spending about 8 percent of their research and development budgets on high-risk research. -- Establish training programs for math and science teachers at the NSF. -- Expand math and science programs at the NSF and other agencies. Electronic Industries Alliance, a trade group, applauded the bill. The legislation "clearly offers the tech industry a great deal to cheer about," Charlie Robinson, the group's interim president and CEO, said in a statement. If Congress passes the bill, "American companies and workers will be more competitive and prosperous for years to come," he added.
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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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Lawmakers at the Senate have delayed a controversial bill that would make it easier to sue online file-trading networks because there is too much opposition to it.
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The US Senate on Monday passed a $136 billion corporate tax package that cuts taxes and closes loopholes. The bill, which took two years to complete, is expected to help about 200,000 US manufacturers create jobs, said Sen.
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(InfoWorld) - Opponents of legislation that wouldÂ overhaul the U.S. patent system have enlisted new allies who may cause majority Democrats in Congress to rethink their support of the proposals. Since late July, three labor unions -- the AFL-CIO, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), and the United Steelworkers -- have sent letters to lawmakers saying they oppose two current patent reform bills. Patent reform opponents say they hope their alliance with organized labor, which has a long history of supporting Democrats, will stall the legislation. But representatives ofÂ large tech vendors that are pushing for patent reform say they're confident there will be support for the legislation when Congress returns from summer recess in early September. The committees in both the Senate and the House of Representatives approved versions of a sweeping patent reform bill in July, and House leaders have targeted the patent reform bill for passage by the end of the year. "I think the momentum exists for this thing to move forward," said Joshua Ackil, vice president of government relations for tech trade group the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). "As folks [in Congress] dive in a little deeper on this issue, they will come around and understand how important patent reform is to the tech sector." In recent sessions of Congress, then-majority Republicans were tugged in two directions when they focused on patent reform bills similar to ones introduced in the current session of Congress. Several high-profile Republicans pushed for patent reform, and won praise from many large tech vendors, but the Republican friendly pharmaceutical industry was staunchly opposed to the bills. By enlisting labor unions, patent reform opponents are trying to put Democrats "in the same situation the Republicans were in," said Ronald Riley, president of the Professional Inventors Alliance, which represents small inventors. Riley's group, along with the American Ingenuity Alliance and other groups, have focused getting unions to back their cause in recent months. Riley portrays patent reform as enabling large tech vendors to steal the ideas of small inventors. "We're tired of these transnationals ripping off our people's work," he said. "We're just warming up." Tech vendors including Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp., and Cisco Systems Inc. have argued that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) too often approves questionable patents, and that it's too easy for patent holders to sue, collect huge damages and shut down product lines that have a small infringing piece. In many cases, patent lawsuits are brought by companies that make all their money by owning patents, critics have said. Cisco spends US$45 million a year defending itself against patent lawsuits, Matt Tanielian, director of government relations for the company, said during a forum in June. "There's a lot of bad patents out there," he said. "When you get sued, you ought to get a fair shake." The letters to Congress from the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers focused on two controversial sections of the patent reform legislation in both the House and the Senate. The two groups objected to the way the legislation would change how courts apportion damages when a company is found to infringe a patent. Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent, but supporters of the bills want Congress to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece. The groups also questioned how the legislation would allow a new way of challenging patents after they're issued, called post-grant review. The bills would allow companies sued for patent infringement a new way to file challenges with USPTO. Representatives of the of the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers didn't return messages or declined to comment on their recent interest in patent reform. But the AFL-CIO letter alluded to recent efforts of the U.S. government and the U.S. tech industry to prod China to strengthen its intellectual property protections. These two changes "may have a negative impact on innovation and research," the AFL-CIO letter said. "At a time when the Chinese government is constantly being challenged to live up to its intellectual property obligations, we do not want to take actions that may weaken ours." The United Steelworkers letter said nearly 70 percent of patents filed in the U.S. come from manufacturing firms. "These bills would allow an endless loop of legal challenges after patents are awarded that will make it more difficult for U.S. patent holders to prevail against frivolous challenges," the letter said. ITI's Ackil and representatives of two other tech groups said they doubted the unions' opposition would kill patent reform, although Ackil acknowledged that "anyone should be concerned" with opposition from large labor groups. Ackil and a representative of another tech trade group, who spoke on background, questioned the depth of the opposition from the labor unions. "The AFL-CIO has been nowhere on this issue for three years," Ackil said. Democrats knew of the labor concerns before the House Judiciary Committee approved the patent reform bill, added a spokesman for Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat and primary sponsor of the House patent bill. "Weâre working now to try to understand and deal with any concerns labor may have," said spokesman Gene Smith. "We think that labor will not be opposing the bill when it comes to the floor soon after the House returns from recess." But the labor opposition could lead to changes in the bills, said Bill Mashek, a spokesman for the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, a group that has opposed parts of the current patent bills. "Laborâs voice in the debate is significant and influential," Mashek said. "It shows, in our view, that the bill needs further work to ensure that U.S. manufacturing and innovators have the incentives to invest and develop new products. The concerns of ... organized labor resonate with members across the country and of all political stripes."
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The House yesterday passed the most comprehensive patent reform in half a century, delivering a victory for computer technology and financial services companies and leaving drug companies, small inventors, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office bracing for a bigger fight before the bill hits the...
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The Senate and House make a controversial move to control alleged profiteering.
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Blog: Measure calls for the most sweeping changes to U.S. patent system in decades, but its path forward could be jeopardized by lingering reservations from other sectors, including venture capitalists and biotech.
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Technology lobbying groups are stepping up their push for lawmakers to pass several pieces of legislation.
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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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Mr. WebTV mounts forces More than 430 organizations spanning all fifty US states have fired off a letter urging Senate leaders to oppose a bill that would overhaul the country's patent system. And that includes tech outfits like Qualcomm and AmberWave.â¦