AIPLA is reporting that Margaret Focarino, USPTO Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations, announced at its recent Annual Meeting in Washington, DC that the proposed rules relating to Information Disclosure Statements and alternative claim language (Markush claiming) will not be published as final rules by the current administration.

The Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the budgetary impact S.1145, the Patent Reform Act of 2007. The Office estimates that enacting the bill as reported by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary would increase direct spending by $26.9 billion while increasing revenues by $25.5 billion over the 2009-2018 period. The bulk of the revenue increase would come from making permanent PTO’s authority to collect and spend certain fees. The net effect of the bill is estimated to be a $1.4 billion deficit increase between 2009 and 2018.

This morning’s Washington Times includes Meaningful Patent Reform, an op/ed piece co-authored by Senators Leahy and Hatch. Characterizing themselves as “close partners on intellectual property issues,” the current and immediate past chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee pitched their case for passage of S.1145, the Patent Reform Act of 2007.

Fortune Small Business recently ran “A guide to what you can (and can’t) patent” as a response to a question posed by a reader regarding the patentability of “an idea for a website.”

In an attempt to get the best information for its audience, Fortune went straight to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Good idea, right?

I’m not so sure.

Lobbyist disclosures are beginning to shed light on the scope of the battle being fought behind the scenes on patent reform. Just last week we learned that Blackberry-maker RIM spent $890k lobbying Congress (mostly) on patent reform in 2007 (the sum also includes fees related to “regulatory rules to make more digital wireless handsets accessible to consumers with hearing disabilities”). Now we’ve got a sense of the “defense” being mounted by those on the other side of the battle (which, interestingly enough, isn’t limited to just pharma and biotech companies). According to this CNN report, recently-filed lobbyist disclosures reveal that the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform “paid a lobbying firm nearly $1.2 million in 2007 to lobby on patent reform legislation.” Some interesting details: