Patent Law

Walk This Way

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

According to NationalJournal.com, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl has his own vector for patent reform, divergent from the Leahy-Hatch cluster fun. Kyl reportedly spent months in meetings "with critics of the Leahy bill, including representatives from the pharmaceutical and life-sciences industries, small tech firms, and other companies whose business models depend on patent licenses. Noticeably absent from the talks were the major high-tech and media firms that belong to the Coalition for Patent Fairness and officials from the financial services sector who championed Leahy's bill."

The Senate bill caught rigor mortis in May after Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter balked at getting aboard the Leahy-Hatch railroad.

"They want their language and they aren't willing to negotiate," one source said, referring to the Coalition's insistence that the legislation include rules for apportionment of damages in patent lawsuits. Members of that group include Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft, and Time Warner Inc.

Under Kyl's plan, litigants would be encouraged to use precise economic analyses to determine damages rather than less exact calculations, sources said. The senator believes that high-tech firms are being forced by courts to pay exorbitant amounts and seeks a more targeted solution, according to sources.

Rather bizarre.

The Georgia Pacific factors for patent damages assessment have worked well since their construction in 1970.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on August 12, 2008 (boomark / email).