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Wednesday Shorts - Patents and Politics

By Peter Zura

Patent Reform Now Part of Snappy-Sounding Agenda - as part of a rebranding strategy, patent reform is being packaged in the Senate as part of a larger "competitiveness agenda" (or "innovation agenda," depending who you ask) that includes bills to expand/renew research and development tax credits, advance job-training and worksharing, develop a Clean Energy Deployment Administration and strengthen cybersecurity.  According to Sen. Reid, first up is completion of a bill to modernize air traffic control system, followed by the patent reform bill (link 1) (link2).  Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has indicated that he will be taking the lead for the GOP in the House efforts to draft a companion patent reform bill.

UPDATE: Reid said he plans to bring the bill to the Senate floor after lawmakers return from a week-long recess set to start on Friday (link)

White House Tech Office Launches R&D "Dashboard" - not to be outdone by the USPTO, the White House?s science and technology office announced the launch of the beta version of its R&D Dashboard, a website to track where federal funding for research and development is going and what impact it?s having.  In a nutshell, the Dashboard tracks the first infusion of federal cash (the ?award?) and proceeds to track whether federal funding led to significant outcomes, such as publications and patent applications (link).

Using CFIUS To Block Patent Deals by Foreign Corporations -  Chinese company Huawei paid $2M for server technology firm 3Leaf Systems,where the deal included several patents and 15 3Leaf employees.  Shortly thereafter, US lawmakers sent letters to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, expressing concerns that Huawei posed a "serious risk" to US national security as a result of the deal.  These concerns were communicated to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), who yesterday recommended that Huawei divest itself from the deal.  Huawei declined to act on the recommendation.  The matter has now been forwarded to President Obama for a decision (link1) (link2) (link3).

Full post as published by Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog on February 16, 2011 (boomark / email).