US patent reform clears House hurdle
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Could bring US patent awards in line with rest of world A proposed law revolutionising US patent legislation has passed through a vital committee of the House of Representatives. The bill has got further than previous attempts at such reform.â¦
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The US House defeated a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage on Thursday afternoon following a heated debate over gay rights and the institution of marriage.
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Patent reform tops the Congressional wish list of U.S. industry executives at summit.
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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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The Democratic-led U.S. Congress defied President George W. Bush on Thursday and gave final approval to legislation to roll back his restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
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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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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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In the wake of a recent landmark Supreme Court ruling, patent reform is bubbling toward a boil on Capitol Hill, where advocates in both parties and both chambers are urging timely action on pending legislation and contending with well-financed interest groups on both sides of the issue.
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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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(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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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 meant to improve the government's drug safety oversight cleared a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday without a controversial limit on television advertisements.
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The US House of Representatives on Friday approved a Republican-written US spy agency overhaul, setting the stage for a battle with the Senate over controversial immigration measures and the new national intelligence director&#39;s power
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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 U.S. House of Representatives on  Friday approved legislation that is a major step toward  allowing the sale of American-made nuclear reactors and fuel to  India.
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Technology industry executives are pushing the U.S. Congress to reform the way patents are issued in order to process them more quickly while also making sure they are legitimate.
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Rejected by voters and limping off stage, the Republican-led House on Friday passed a sweeping bill reviving expired tax breaks and preventing doctors from taking a big cut in Medicare payments.