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August 11, 2008
Walk This Way
According
to
NationalJournal.com, Senate Minority Whip
Jon Kyl has his own vector for patent reform, divergent from the Leahy-Hatch
cluster fun. Kyl reportedly spent months in meetings "with critics of the Leahy
bill, including representatives from the pharmaceutical and life-sciences
industries, small tech firms, and other companies whose business models depend
on patent licenses. Noticeably absent from the talks were the major high-tech
and media firms that belong to the Coalition for Patent Fairness and officials
from the financial services sector who championed Leahy's bill."
The Senate bill caught rigor mortis in May after Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter balked at getting aboard the Leahy-Hatch railroad.
"They want their language and they aren't willing to negotiate," one source said, referring to the Coalition's insistence that the legislation include rules for apportionment of damages in patent lawsuits. Members of that group include Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft, and Time Warner Inc.
Under Kyl's plan, litigants would be encouraged to use precise economic analyses to determine damages rather than less exact calculations, sources said. The senator believes that high-tech firms are being forced by courts to pay exorbitant amounts and seeks a more targeted solution, according to sources.
Rather bizarre.
The Georgia Pacific factors for patent damages assessment have worked well since their construction in 1970.
Posted by Patent Hawk at August 11, 2008 11:58 PM | The Patent System