Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), an ardent opponent of comprehensive patent reform efforts, recently jumped on an opportunity to notify the administration about Microsoft’s “agressive posture” on the issue.
Kaptur, the most senior Democratic woman on the influential House Appropriations Committee, recently issued a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging the application of a ’strict scrutiny’ standard of review to Microsoft’s recently announced hostile bid for Yahoo! Inc.
Interestingly, the letter’s focus (and purpose?) seems to be more on patent reform than on the takeover bid.
To wit:
She characterized the bid as appearing “against the backdrop of [Microsoft's] current aggressive posture in Congress seeking to reform and diminish the effectiveness of our nation’s intellectual property protections.”
She specifically pointed to the company’s lobbying for the passage of two controversial reform efforts, apportionment of damages and the “second window” in a post grant review system:
“Microsoft is seeking to fundamentally transform the treatment for those entities that infringe on the intellectual property of other innovators by minimizing the damages the victim could receive and to ensure that the potential for harassment would extended (sic) dramatically by allowing for virtually endless attacks on patent validity.”
Download a .pdf of Representative Kaptur’s letter here.
Kaptur has made several spirited floor speeches against patent reform efforts over the years, including one that included a statement of disgust with the politics played by members of her own party in setting the ‘debate’ on H.R. 1907, The Patent Reform Act of 2007.
Representative Kaptur’s district includes my beloved Toledo, OH, but just misses my current hometown of Perrysburg, OH.
