Pipe 39D Anti-Troll Patent Reform Stalls in US Senate

Anti-Troll Patent Reform Stalls in US Senate

by
in legal on (#39D)
In 2011 the US Congress passed the "America Invents Act" , a so-called "patent reform" bill that seemed more like a wish list for companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Intellectual Ventures that file lots of patents and enforce them vigorously as part (or all) of their business model. That bill was signed into law by President Obama. A follow-up bill oriented more towards what the rest of us might consider patent reform, aimed at protecting businesses from patent trolls and nuisance lawsuits was passed by the US House of Representatives last year by a vote of 325 to 91; it included provisions for requiring patent ownership to be more transparent, more specific language in infringement lawsuits, plaintiff liability for legal costs in unsuccessful lawsuits, delaying legal discovery during a lawsuit until the court has finished reviewing the claims, and allowing companies to protect end users against skip-level infringement lawsuits. However, the counterpart bill in the Senate was postponed indefinitely on Wednesday by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, apparently because of infighting between the pro-reform faction (Internet companies including Google, Facebook, and Amazon; other tech companies such as Verizon; and retailers) and the go-slow faction (pharmaceutical companies, trial lawyers and universities). Here's the statement from the universities on the postponement.

History


Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /var/pipedot/include/diff.php on line 25

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiff::$granularityStack is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 217

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiff::$edits is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 218

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiff::$from_text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 219

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiff::$last_edit is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 372

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiff::$stackpointer is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 373

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiff::$from_offset is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 375

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$fromLen is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 126

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 127

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffCopyOp::$len is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 155

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffCopyOp::$len is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 155

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffInsertOp::$text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 104

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$fromLen is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 126

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 127

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffCopyOp::$len is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 155

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$fromLen is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 126

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 127

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffCopyOp::$len is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 155

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$fromLen is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 126

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 127

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffCopyOp::$len is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 155

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$fromLen is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 126

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 127

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffCopyOp::$len is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 155

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$fromLen is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 126

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 127

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffCopyOp::$len is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 155

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$fromLen is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 126

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property FineDiffReplaceOp::$text is deprecated in /var/pipedot/lib/finediff/finediff.php on line 127
2014-05-22 12:04
Anti-Troll Patent Reform Stalls in US Senate
zafiro17@pipedot.org
In 2011 the US Congress passed the "America Invents Act" , a so-called "patent reform" bill that seemed more like a wish list for companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Intellectual Ventures that file lots of patents and enforce them vigorously as part (or all) of their business model. That bill was signed into law by President Obama.

A follow-up bill oriented more towards what the rest of us might consider patent reform, aimed at protecting businesses from patent trolls and nuisance lawsuits was passed by the US House of Representatives last year by a vote of 325 to 91; it included provisions for requiring patent ownership to be more transparent, more specific language in infringement lawsuits, plaintiff liability for legal costs in unsuccessful lawsuits, delaying legal discovery during a lawsuit until the court has finished reviewing the claims, and allowing companies to protect end users against skip-level infringement lawsuits.

However, the counterpart bill in the Senate was postponed indefinitely on Wednesday by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, apparently because of infighting between the pro-reform faction (Internet companies including Google, Facebook, and Amazon; other tech companies such as Verizon; and retailers) and the go-slow faction (pharmaceutical companies, trial lawyers and universities). Here's the statement from the universities on the postponement.

[Ed note: there seems to be general consensus that patent reform is desperately necessary to correct a deeply flawed system. But if government is unable to do it, then what do we do?]
Reply 0 comments