Posts Tagged: "Capitol Hill"

Last week, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) launched the long-awaited legislative campaign to revive the faltering U.S. innovation system, jointly introducing one bill to restore patent eligibility and another to boost patent reliability at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).  As the chair and ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on Intellectual Property, they are well-positioned to move these bipartisan bills forward. They got assists from Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), who joined as original co-sponsors on the PREVAIL Act. While Coons and Tillis are well-placed, Durbin is even more so as he chairs the Judiciary Committee and serves as the number two leader of the majority party.

This week in Washington IP news, the House IP Subcommittee will look at the impact of the Music Modernization Act five years since its enactment. Elsewhere, the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) will discuss its latest policy on AI-generated content. Also, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is offering guidance on the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) process.

On the same day the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023 was introduced by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), the two senators, along with their colleagues, Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), introduced the Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act today. The bill’s aim is to reform the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and would build upon Coons’ STRONGER Patents Act, introduced in 2019.

As predicted by retired United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Chief Judge Paul Michel last month, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) have introduced the first of what Michel said will be multiple bills aimed at fixing the U.S. patent system. Today’s bill, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023, would eliminate all judicially-created exceptions to U.S. patent eligibility law.

This week in Washington IP news, the House Science Committee looks at how artificial intelligence can be deployed to advance U.S. interests; Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announces an AI policy framework that he hopes will lay the groundwork for bipartisan AI policy; and IPWatchdog hosts its inaugural Patent Prosecution & Portfolio Management Masters program.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) yesterday republished its Request for Comments (RFC) on the establishment of an additional USPTO Regional Office in the southeast region and four new community outreach offices. The original RFC included a bad link for the comments form, so the Office published a new link and also extended the deadline for comments from July 11, 2023, to July 17. The RFC is in response to provisions of the Unleashing American Innovators Act of 2022 (UAIA), which was introduced in September 2021 and signed into law in December 2022, and requires the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to establish another satellite office within three years of the bill’s enactment somewhere in the Southeastern region of the nation, which the bill specifically defines as Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

This week in Washington IP news, the IP5 are gathering in Hawaii to discuss how the world’s five largest IP offices are incentivizing innovations that address climate change. Elsewhere, the Hudson Institute is hosting a panel discussion that will look at how geopolitical struggles over technological standards could play out.

The House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet today held a hearing titled “IP and Strategic Competition with China: Part II – Prioritizing U.S. Innovation Over Assisting Foreign Adversaries,” which focused on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) agreement on a waiver of IP rights for COVID-19 vaccine technologies under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) last June. All of the panelists agreed that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency and that an extension of the waiver to diagnostics and therapeutics is likely unnecessary.

In 2015, China launched its 2025 Initiative listing all the technologies and industries it wants to control by 2025. So far, they have been successful in leading 37 of 44 technologies critical to economic growth and national security. The nation that dominates these technologies will determine the fate of all nations. In the past, the United States led the world in technology, but today it is China. How did this happen? This damage was caused by a series of big hits by the courts, congress and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The first big hit was eBay vs. MercExchange (eBay) in 2006. In order to obtain an injunction, a patent holder must prove that they not only have a patented product on the market, but also the ability to distribute that product. eBay let loose massive predatory infringement, killing off startups, the biggest competitive threat to Big Tech and many other industries.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Accountability, James Comer (R-KY), announced an investigation this week into accusations raised by former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Christine Wilson in her resignation against the conduct of FTC Chair Lina Khan. Wilson sent a letter to President Joe Biden in March claiming that his appointment of Khan as Chair brought “an abrupt halt” to Biden’s promised “return to normalcy” for the agency. She said that Khan “scorned and sidelined” knowledgeable career staff, in part by imposing a gag order on staff “that prevented them from engaging in consumer and business education — a vote of no confidence in our staff and a disservice to those we serve.”

Former Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Andrei Iancu, who is now a partner with Irell & Manella, told attendees of an Orrin G. Hatch Foundation webinar today that many of the proposals in the USPTO’s recent Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) practices should be legislated by Congress. Particularly on issues that were statutorily prescribed, such as the standard patents are reviewed under at the PTAB versus the courts, the timing for filing petitions, and who can bring an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding, Iancu said the better route to certainty is through Congress.

In response to last week’s hearing of the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on copyright law, former Copyright Office General Counsel, Jon Baumgarten, submitted a letter this week to the Subcommittee expressing his concerns with the testimony of one of the witnesses, Sy Damle of Latham & Watkins, who also formerly served as U.S. Copyright Office General Counsel. The letter was published in full on the Copyright Alliance website.

This week in Washington IP news, Congress is having a relatively quiet week, but the House will further discuss the impact of Pharmacy Benefit Managers on patients and the pharmaceutical industry. Elsewhere the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is holding an event offering guidance on how women entrepreneurs can seek startup capital.

The House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet today held the first of several planned hearings about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on intellectual property, focusing in this initial hearing on copyright law. The witnesses included three artists, a professor, and an attorney with varying perspectives on the matter, although the artists all expressed similar concerns about the potentially dire effects of generative AI (GAI) applications on their respective industries and careers.

This week in Washington IP news, artificial intelligence is the hot topic of the week with the Senate and House both holding hearings on the subject. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will testify before the Senate as the young tech entrepreneur becomes the face of the emerging industry. Elsewhere, the USPTO is hosting a day-long expo on innovation in the green energy sector.