Special Alert
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PATENT REFORM LEGISLATION IN THE 110th CONGRESS
RECENT ACTIVITY - 110th CONGRESS MOVING INTO THE SECOND SESSION
S. 1145, the Patent Reform Act, is moving rapidly toward the Senate Floor for consideration. You may recall that during the week of July 16, 2007, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees sent separate versions of the patent reform bill (H.R. 1908 and S. 1145) to the House and Senate for a vote. While the bills as originally introduced were virtually identical, the final documents out of the Judiciary Committees are different. As the bills passed out of committee, the leaders of both Committees said they recognized there were still issues to be resolved and committed to further changes before the bills came to a vote on the respective Floors. H.R. 1908 with amendments passed the House on September 7, 2007. S. 1145 as passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and reported in the Senate was just officially posted and , and it is anticipated that the Senate bill may move to the Senate Floor in February 2008 (click here for current version of Senate bill.) If the final bills passed by the two houses are different, the bills go into "conference" and selected legislators work out the differences behind closed doors with little input from the public, or the Senate bill may also be sent back to the House for endorsement so that both Congressional houses have approved the same language.
University technology transfer offices and others who utilize the U.S. patent system should review the legislation as soon as possible, and with your university management and federal relations officer, develop an institutional position and provide comments to local legislators immediately. Below are materials that might be useful in these activities:
PATENT REFORM DEBATE MOVES TO THE SENATE
PATENT REFORM IS ADOPTED IN THE HOUSE
PREVIOUS ACTIVITY DURING 110th CONGRESS
- 2/8/08 AUTM Letter to Senators Leahy and Specter
- Attachment: 2/5/08 AAU Letter re: S. 1145
- Attachment: Higher Ed Associations' Statement on S. 1145
- S. 1145 Talking Points (10/20/2007)
- AUTM letter - HR 1908 - PUR (9/6/07)
- AAU - HR 1908 - PUR (8/21/07)
- AUTM letter - HR 1908 - Venue (9/6/07)
- S. 1145 Template Letter
- August 13, 2007 AUTM Special Report to U.S. Technology Transfer Directors on four issues associated with patent reform legislation, including Venue
- Comparison chart of S. 1145 and HR 1908 as of September 11, 2007
- Guidance to University TTOs on what you can do NOW!
- Draft template of letter to express concerns to your legislators
- List of Senate Judiciary Committee Members
- List of House Judiciary Committee Members
- HR 1908 introduced on April 18, 2007
- House Manager’s Amendment as of mid-July (does not include accepted amendments on venue, damages, and other topics, but an updated Managers Amendment is not yet available)
- S. 1145 introduced on April 18, 2007
- Leahy’s Managers Amendment adopted on July 18, 2007
- Higher ed associations’ statement of May 16, 2007
- Testimony from House Subcommittee hearing on April 26, 2007, including testimony by William Tucker of the University of California
- Testimony from Senate Judiciary hearing on June 6, 2007
- Cross Coalition Letter of June 19, 2007 signed by over 200 organizations and businesses expressing concern about patent reform legislation
- Letters and Positions from Other Organizations
- Information from the previous 109th Congress
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