Patent Law

Unconstitutional law to fix unconstitutional law?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

President Bush on Tuesday signed a bill meant to fix a flaw in a 1999 law that has cast doubt on thousands of patent decisions. Under the old law, legal experts said, scores of administrative patent judges were appointed by a government official without the constitutional power to do so. The new law allows the secretary of commerce, who has such constitutional power, to make both new and retroactive appointments. John F. Duffy, the George Washington University law professor who discovered the flaw, said he was skeptical about the constitutionality of the retroactivity provision.

See also

Another "appointments" challenge to BPAI judges

Full post as published by IPBiz on August 14, 2008 (boomark / email).