Interesting twist in the patent reform battle this morning, as opposition to S. 23 from the Coalition for Patent Fairness splits Apple, Cisco, Dell and Intel, who are now opposing the reform bill, from Microsoft and IBM, who apparently support it. This is puzzling, since S. 23 basically provides for everything the coalition was asking for.
What’s their problem now? From Politico.com:
The bill “does not reflect the needs of our nation’s most innovative companies who constantly face the growing burden of abusive, unjustified patent infringement claims.”
I’m not sure what they would propose to add to address this concern, since abusive litigation is generally addressed on a case-by-case basis, but if anyone knows, please drop me a line.
Related Articles
- Lies And Ignorance Underlying The Patent Reform Act (gametimeip.com)
- Leahy fast-tracks patent bill (politico.com)
- Patent bill hits resistance (politico.com)
Although early rumblings tend to indicate that this latest effort at patent reform may well be doomed, the good news is that IP issues appear to be headed on an upswing under the Obama administration. Leahy’s legislation may be too big not to fail, but the recent increased attention to patent reform will likely yield at least one or two bills that are small enough to succeed.
Posted by patent litigation | February 7, 2011, 5:57 pmThanks for reading. I’ll have more to say about the patent reform agenda tomorrow. There’s really one thing, and one thing only that Congress needs to do in the immediate term to help the patent system.
Posted by Patrick | February 7, 2011, 6:44 pmHere is a similar story
Tribal Sovereign Immunity Shields Indian Nation From Liability For Patent Infringement
Defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction was granted where defendant was a federally recognized Indian nation and immune from suit. “[Plaintiff] points to no authority that Congress has expressly abrogated tribal sovereign immunity with respect to the enforcement of patents. . . . Nowhere in the Gaming Compact [between defendant and the State of Oklahoma] does [defendant] indicate an intention to waive its immunity from suit with respect to torts generally, or for patent infringement particularly. . . . Because the Quapaw Tribe enjoys sovereign immunity from patent infringement suits and did not waive its immunity, its Motion to Dismiss is granted.”
Posted by patentattorney2011 | February 8, 2011, 3:29 am