Hearing to Consider Issues for Mark-up Although the Innovation Act ( H.R.. 3309 ) was only introduced last week, as expected , Congress is wasting no time pushing the “patent reform” issue forward. Today at 10AM the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the content of the Bill...
Caution Urged by Members of House Judiciary Committee With two previous working drafts circulated in the House of Representatives, the proposals of the Goodlatte Bill were thought to be thoroughly “baked in” from a legislative perspective. However recent commentary from the judiciary on...
Pro Software Lobby Drives Legislative Rewrite Last week, the proposed patent reform legislation (HR 3309) was seemingly stalled for the remainder of 2013 . This road block was primarily erected by the Business Software Alliance, and other pro software patent lobbyist that were taking issue with certain...
Critical Technical Fix to CBM Statute Left out of Leahy Bill Wasting no time…the Senate has quickly introduced a companion bill to H.R. 3309 . The senate bill ( here ), sponsored by Senator Leahy of Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) fame, largely tracks the post grant related provisions...
Patent Reform Debate Moves to Senate in January 2014 Yesterday afternoon, the Innovation Act (H.R. 3309) passed through the House with ease by a vote of 325-91. The bill was quickly debated (3 hours) and only slightly amended. The one noteworthy change was the removal of the provision designed to...
Senate Judiciary to Webcast Hearing on Leahy Bill Next Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing entitled Protecting Small Businesses and Promoting Innovation by Limiting Patent Troll Abuse. The 10 AM hearing will be webcast . A witness list is not yet available. The hearing will...
PTAB Begins Front Loading IPR & CBM Schedules The new patent challenge proceedings of the USPTO’s Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) are instantly distinguishable from the previous examiner-based, patent reexamination—perhaps most notably in speed. That is, an Inter Partes Review...
PTAB Review Proceedings Force Change to Age Old Patent Prosecution Paradigm As Bob Dylan once warned, you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone….the times they are a changin. ‘ While Bob clearly had some broader ranging social issues on his mind when he penned...
Hearings End, Leahy Bill to Reemerge on Fast Track Last Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee concluded a round of additional staff hearings on pending Senate Bills S.1720 (Leahy) entitled Patent Transparency & Improvement Act. The hearings focused on the concerns of universities, small inventors...
IPR…Not Just For Trolls With Congress on the verge of passing still more legislation directed at alleviating the dreaded “patent troll” problem, perhaps Congress should pause to consider what has already been accomplished over the last 18+ months. As pointed at by Gene Quinn at...
Leahy/Cornyn Compromise Hammered Out? Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee generally considered bill S. 1720 entitled Patent Transparency and Improvements Act of 2013 but held over the matter for this week . It seems there was a bit of a stalemate on the topic of litigation fee shifting and expansion...
by Rich Ehisen For all intents and purposes, patent law reform is an issue that has long been the purview of the federal government and the court system. But with intense pressure building at all levels of government to combat so-called "patent trolls" — companies that exist primarily...
Here’s a suggestion for a movie sequel. It takes its cue from the 2012 dark fantasy action film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , which was based on a mashup novel of the same name. This is the idea: Barack Obama: Patent Troll Slayer! It’s got… executive branch attitude! If that...
Passage of Major Reform in 2014 Seems Unlikely This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee once again delayed release of the manager’s amendment of The Patent Transparency & Improvement Act . Perhaps the committee needed additional time to study the impact of this week’s Supreme Court...
Writing is on the Wall for 2014 With yet another (5th or 6th?) manager’s amendment delay announced yesterday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, it is clear that momentum for patent reform is waning on the Senate side. Whether it be the recent Supreme Court decisions mooting the need for fee...
Patent Reform Has Been in the Hands of the Public Since September 2012 The last round of patent reform was enacted into law in 2011 as the America Invents Act (AIA). Along with the AIA came new patent challenge mechanisms that first became available to the public in September of 2012. These mechanisms...
Congress Clings to Familiar Patent Reform Issue As we approach the witching hour of mid-term elections, Congress begins to turn back to the business of law making. With so few legislative initiatives having meaningful bipartisan support, and a lame duck executive eager to appear — well, not...
Patent Reform Propaganda Amps Up With the incoming Republican majority itching to make their mark, patent reform appears at the top of the legislative agenda for 2015. As discussed previously, the interest in further reform is based more on political expediency than true need . That is, selling the...
Proponents of Further Reform Beginning to Scramble This time last year, further patent reform efforts had steamrolled their way through the House. While the House passed the Goodlatte Bill with surprising urgency, efforts on the Senate side became hopelessly deadlocked last spring on a variety of...
Misguided STRONG Act Would Undo Years of AIA Progress Well, if you expected the Goodlatte Bill to sail through the House for swift passage through the Senate, forget about it. Hill chatter has indicated that the significant House support of the Bill has diminished since the last vote in 2013 (and...
Should Systemic Changes to The Patent System Be Undertaken in Response to Bad Actors? Efforts to enact patent reform (as well as the America Invents Act of 2011) are/were largely driven by the perception that the patent system is being abused by bad actors. Currently, many of the most established...
House Judiciary Committee to Hear Testimony from USPTO & Industry Reps Today, the House Judiciary Committee will conduct a hearing on the "Innovation Act" (H.R. 9) . Scheduled speakers include USPTO Director Lee, general counsel for BIO, and other in-house counsel. As most know, the...
Hedge Fund IPR Scheme Unraveling Last week, the USPTO's Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) authorized a Motion for Sanctions in four IPR proceedings filed by the now infamous Kyle Bass & friends. The motion for sanctions will be based on an alleged abuse of process by Bass & Co. for...
Senate Patent Reform Effort Placed Back on Calendar Whether a favor to pro-reform lobbyists, or just wishful thinking, Senate Bill S.1137 (the "PATENT Act") has been placed back on the Senate Calendar . As a reminder, a Manager's Amendment to the bill last spring included a pile of PTAB...