I’m very fortunate, and now so are you.

Over the last couple years, I have received tremendous help and insight from a real pro at legislation tracking — Paul Jenks of GalleryWatch.  Paul has taken a tremendous amount of his time to explain the intricacies and nuances of the legislative process to me in great detail.  He always has the answer when I ask and routinely provides hard-to-find resources at precisely the perfect time.

Last year, he called me on my cell phone as I was driving across Indiana to let me know that the President had just signed, literally minutes earlier, the appropriations bill that included the remnants of last session’s Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act.  Thanks Paul.

Now Paul will begin sharing his insight with everyone.  He recently joined Sabrina Pacifici at LLRX as the author of a new column, CongressLine.  The column promises to be a real resource for those interested in tracking federal legislation.

I read the first installment of CongressLine and immediately knew that Paul and Sabrina have hit a home run.  In Legislative Monitoring – Additional Materials, Paul explains the importance of unofficial documents to the process (the “Hippie Documents,” in Paul’s terminology).  This first column is a perfect example of the the value that Paul brings to the table…and now shares with all.

If your interested in tracking federal legislation, or even just curious about how it really works, keep an eye on this column.  It won’t disappoint.

…well, my letter to the Editor, anyways. In the Readers Report section, this week’s issue of BusinessWeek includes a letter I wrote to the Editor concerning a recent story on the Patent Act of 2005 and the focus on the patent troll issue. The letter is available online here.

[Copyright 2005 J. Matthew Buchanan. Originally published on Promote the Progress.]

The main page for Promote the Progress is designed to list the last two weeks worth of posts.  If you haven’t noticed lately, posting here has been light.  Soon, a gap will exists between posts that will create a blank main page.

I’m doing a little rethinking right now.  PTP is going to change.  The patent reform library and other popular resources will remain available, but the format of the blog is going to change.

Drastically.

So what will the new format be?  I’ll tell you that it’s not the format change my favorite radio station adopted during my undergraduate years – all Zeppelin, all the time.  I do like Zeppelin, just not all the time.

When?  Not sure.

Why?  Very sure.

[Copyright 2005 J. Matthew Buchanan. Originally published on Promote the Progress.]

What’s next for patent reform legislation?

It’s a waiting game.  For the issue to advance, we need a markup of the House bill (H.R. 2795) and the introduction of a bill in the Senate (likely from Senator Hatch).

An August break for Congress looms.  While it may be possible to get a markup of the House bill before then, action on the Senate side is fairly unlikely.

On introduction, the Senate bill would likely be referred to the Intellectual Property subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee.  Unfortunately, the Judiciary Committee will probably be fairly busy in the near future thanks to Justice O’Connor.  There’s little chance the full Committee will focus on a patent bill in the face of a Supreme Court nomination.  Thus, even if a Senate bill is introduced in the near future, it’s unlikely to see rapid movement at the sub/committee level.

So now we wait.

[Copyright 2005 J. Matthew Buchanan. Originally published on Promote the Progress.]