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Cracks Forming in the Passage of Patent Reform Act

By Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog

Today the Congressional Quarterly (CQ) is reporting that Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) is pulling his support for S.1145, stating that he "cannot join" his colleagues "on some parts of the bill, citing apportionment of damages as a "principle sticking point."

Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has reportedly been working on introducing the amendments to S.1145 for several days and even reserved the television studio two days in a row this week, only to cancel both times. Support for the bill does not appear to be strong at this time - the CQ article notes that Leahy acknowledged that he "will need every vote he can find to advance the bill through the Senate."

Cosponsor Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has also voiced reservations about S.1145, and made clear this week that his support for the bill is contingent on the inclusion of his language for amending inequitable conduct (currently Hatch is "optimistic" that his language will be included).

In a separate but related news story, the Dow Jones Newswires are reporting that Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is dropping the "Check 21" provision completely from the bill, stating "I don't know how [the provision] can be modified" to pass constitutional muster. Tuesday, Sessions indicated that he likely wouldn't attempt to fix the amendment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has previously voiced her opposition to the amendment.

The quote that best summarizes the situation is from Senator Sessions himself: "I think this has more to do with lobbyists than it does with merits . . . This has been a lobbyist money machine. They're all over the place around here."

Full post as published by Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog on April 09, 2008 (boomark / email).