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April 10, 2008
Quid Pro Quo
Senate
Republicans are threatening inaction if nominations for appellate court judges
are not acted on, the pace of which has been described as "glacial." Numerous
judicial
nominations languish under the jaundiced eye of
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Sen. Arlen Spector,R-Pa., who
yesterday pulled his support for Leahy's Putrid Patent Act, suggested that GOP
senators retaliate by blocking the bill, S.1145, a specter that Leahy acknowledged. And a
fine idea indeed.
Spector pulled his plug from the patent bill by damning damages apportionment, which is the raison d' etat for the bill's existence to the Coalition for Patent Fairness (CPF), a lobbyist group for various mega-corporations, many in the IT sector, who want to make patent enforcement truly "the sport of kings," thus unaffordable to mere mortals. CPF mouthpiece Mark Isakowitz dissected S. 1145: "The heart of the bill is the damages provision and we would not support a bill that has no heart." As one wag from Oz wondered: "How could we have a bill without a heart? Or without a brain?"
Posted by Patent Hawk at April 10, 2008 1:37 PM | The Patent System