Archive for June, 2005
Anti-fee diversion bill referred to full committee without amendment
Yesterday, the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property referred H.R. 2791, The Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act (PTFMA) of 2005, to the full Committee on the Judiciary.
No amendments were made during markup by the subcommittee.
[Copyright 2005 J. Matthew Buchanan. Originally published on Promote the Progress.]
House subcommittee holds markup hearing on PTO fee-diversion bill
The House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property held a markup hearing on the Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act (PTFMA – H.R. 2791) today. The bill has been referred to the whole Committee on the Judiciary for consideration.
I’m working to determine if any amendments were offered in the markup.
Remember, PTFMA was introduced on [...]
The GAO report: The money quote (literally)
From the conclusion of the GAO’s report on USPTO patent automation systems:
“…[A]fter spending over a billion dollars on its efforts, the agency is still not yet effectively positioned to process patent applications in a fully automated environment; moreover, when and how it will actually achieve this capability remains uncertain.”
I can hear it now: “Yeah, we [...]
GAO report harshly criticizes USPTO information technology efforts
The Government Accountability Office has issued a report of its review of the progress of the USPTO on its various patent automation projects, including the Image File Wrapper (IFW) system and the Electronic Filing System (EFS).
View and/or download a .pdf of the report here.
The Report is harshly critical of the Office, noting top-level failures:
“USPTO’s ineffective [...]
Whew…nothing changed while I was away…
Brazil is still threatening to ignore patents that cover AIDS drugs. At least this time she was kind enough to set a 10–day deadline.
Return to blogging
I’m back. It’s off topic for Promote the Progress, but I managed to work the reason for my brief absence into this post on the Rethink(ip) blog.
Blogging will be light for the next few days…
I’ll be back to a regular schedule near the end of this week.
International Harmonization Efforts - the mess gets messier
Yesterday, the Patent and Trademark Office formally announced that patent law harmonization talks stand stalled at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Efforts to harmonize patent laws around the globe have been a fine mess for some time. But now, an impasse is evident, and the future is very murky.
The US has lead a group [...]
PTP Patent Reform Library has been updated
I updated the Patent Reform Library this morning to include the following new resources:
1. The Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act of 2005 (HR 2791). This bill includes a refund system, much like that proposed in PTFMA 2004 (108 HR 1561) to address the fee diversion issue.
2. The opening statement of Chairman Lamar Smith from [...]
Brazil threatens to suspend intellectual property rights for American products
Brazil is threatening to suspend the intellectual property rights of American products if the U.S. government doesn’t address a WTO deadline to change its cotton subsidy practices by July 1. According to this article, the threat is designed to draw IP-intensive industries, such as the entertainment, computer, and pharmaceutical industries, into the no-tech battle over cotton subsidies.
Interesting [...]
