In a committee meeting led forcefully by Chairman Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee today voted to pass the Patent Reform Act of 2009 to the whole Senate. The Committee voted to adopt the proposed manager’s amendment [.pdf] and voted against various other proposed amendments.
Senator Hatch offered resistance based primarily on the inquitable conduct provision – “I’m sick and tired of non-innovators who use the inequitable conduct provision and then walk away as infringers.”
Senator Kyl, who has proposed an alternative patent reform bill, offered resistance in the form of a proposed amendment to the post-grant review provision of the bill. He sought to add a prima facie requirement that would “protect the patent office from having to accept 90% of requested challenges.” The committee did not adopt his proposed amendment, but Chairman Leahy did indicate that, at the request of Senator Kyl, he will discuss the post-grant review procedure and the proposed amendment with USPTO officials over recess.
Senator Coburn offered an amendment that would prevent diversion of USPTO fees for a period of five years. Senator Leahy expressed support for the idea, but led a vote to table the proposed amendment as one that is better considered by the whole Senate. As an appropriations issue, he expressed concern that the amendment might infringe on the jurisdiction of another committee.
Several comments of Senator Feinsten on the adopted amendment provide insight into the status of the compromise that appears to have been reached by the relevant groups:
“I think this amendment to the patent reform act of 2009 gives all parties 90% of what they want, not 50%.”
“We have substantial meeting of the minds…We’ve got what we need to move the bill.”
While the Committee successfully moved the bill to the full Senate, today’s hearing makes it clear that many more proposed amendments loom. Senate debate will likely be very intense.
Related posts:
- Redline version of The Patent Reform Act of 2009 as approved by Senate Judiciary Committee
- Patent Reform Act of 2009, as reported by Senate Judiciary Committee
- Senate amendments to the Patent Reform Act of 2009
- Two reasons why the Patent Reform Act of 2009 is going nowhere….for now
- Patent Reform Act of 2009, from the hip
Discussion
There are 5 responses to this post, including 0 comments, 0 pings, 0 tweetbacks, and 0 related tweets.
You can join the discussion by leaving a comment on this page using the form at the bottom, by pinging the page with a post on your own site, or by adding a tweet to your Twitter page that mentions the post.
I try to collect related tweets that readers of the post will find helpful or interesting. If you know of a tweet that provides background content, a different viewpoint, or other relevant information, please send me a link to the tweet.
Comments
# posted on 11.29.09 at 10:12 pm
What is the status of The Patent Reform Act of 2009 as of 29 NOV 2009? I tried to copy it from the internet but have not been able to find it there.
Pings
# posted on 04.05.09 at 8:59 pm
[...] have preferred to have the originally proposed revision to damages calculations. Others, including Promote the Progress and the Salt Lake City Tribune , suggest it was because the bill failed to revise the standard for [...]
# posted on 04.06.09 at 6:09 am
[...] by an agreement between the competing camps, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted last week to pass the Patent Reform Act of 2009 to the full Senate for debate. The Committee adopted a manager’s amendment that embodies the changes required by the [...]
# posted on 04.09.09 at 3:31 pm
[...] The GPO has published the S.515, The Patent Reform Act of 2009, as reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 2, 2009. [...]
# posted on 04.10.09 at 6:02 am
[...] Judiciary Committee gave us a watershed moment in the patent reform movement when, last week, it approved an amended version of the Patent Reform Act of 2009. The Committee’s action is a significant step toward enactment of comprehensive patent [...]
Tweetbacks
There are no tweetbacks to this post.
Other relevant tweets
I haven't added any other tweets to this post.
Leave a comment