Patent

It must be spring, and a delightful spring at that. Like swallows to Capistrano, numerous pigeons created by the IP mafia over the years are at last coming home to roost. Today’s NYT provides the most recent returning pigeon dropping its unintended consequence out of a clear blue sky.

In re Bilski is a case before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that could, if decided properly, prevent patents on business methods and other abstract ideas. The case came out of Bilski’s challenge to the Patent Office’s rejection of a patent application on a method of managing investment risks due to weather changes.

Public Knowledge, along with Consumers Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief with the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic, arguing that non-technological inventions, like abstract business methods, should not be patented. The brief also sets out a five-part test to help courts determine whether or not an invention is technological, as opposed to an abstract idea only marginally connected to technology.

Congress came back to town this week from its winter holiday break, and even though the economy, the war, the environment and the election will take center stage over the next year, Public Knowledge will have its hands full with a variety of technology, communications, copyright and patent matters. Here is a rundown of the specific issues that are likely to be addressed in 2008, in Congress and at the agencies with which PK works:

TITLE: To enhance remedies for violations of intellectual property laws, and for other purposes.

The full text of this bill is available on Thomas. Follow discussion about it on OpenCongress.

The Patent Reform Act of 2007 has been awaiting a vote on the floor of the Senate for sometime now. Public interest groups have been hoping there will be a vote sometime this fall. The House passed a similar version of the bill on September 7th of this year. There has been too much discussion and deliberation about patent reform for this bill not to come to the Senate floor. The FTC came out with its recommendations for patent reform in 2003 and the National Academies came out with their report in 2004. Many provisions of this Patent Reform bill and its previous iteration are based on recommendations in these reports.

When the bill is considered for a vote, public interest groups only hope that some of its reform provisions don’t get watered down in effectiveness. As it stands a few key provisions in the Senate bill are more pro-reform than the House bill.

Six leading consumer groups have asked U.S. Senate leadership to bring to the floor legislation (S. 1145) to reform the patent system. The Judiciary Committee approved the bill July 19, 2007.

In a letter sent November 7, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Knowledge Ecology International, Public Knowledge and U.S. Public Interest Research Group said the legislation represents “a valuable first step in improving the quality and ensuring the strength of validly issued patents.” The bill is sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

Public Knowledge President Gigi B. Sohn today announced the addition of two new staff members for the organization.

Jef Pearlman is an Equal Justice Works fellow for the next two years. He is a 1999 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earned a Master’s degree from MIT in computer science in 2000 and received his law degree from Stanford Law School in 2006. Jef will be working on amicus briefs, FCC filings and broadband issues.

Rashmi Rangnath, a PK Law Clerk, received her Bachelors in Academic Laws (B.A. equivalent) in 1998 and her LL.B. (J.D. equivalent) from the University of Mysore in Mysore, India. After getting married and coming to the U.S., Rashmi received her LL.M. degree in International Legal Studies with a specialization in International and Comparative Protection of Intellectual Property from American University Washington College of Law in 2006. Rashmi works on copyright and patent issues.

“Both Jef and Rashmi were interns at Public Knowledge, and we are pleased to welcome them back. They will contribute immeasurably to the important work we do,” Sohn said.

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The House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property will hold a hearing on: International Piracy: The Challenges of Protecting Intellectual Property in the 21st Century.

Please check the hearing information page for a witness list and testimony, as it is made available.

First Blackberry…now NTP is setting its sights on wireless email providers and targeting mobile devices such as PDAs, cell phones and smart phones that are capable of sending emails. What next… the laptop? NTP filed lawsuits against Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile claiming infringement of eight (8) of its patents. The lawsuits, filed in Federal District Court in Virginia, seek an injunction against the sale of these devices. Lawsuits like these threaten to deprive people of continued use of legitimately purchased products and services.

This past spring and summer was all about broadband policy for Public Knowledge - we were consumed with the 700 MHz spectrum auction, Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission proceedings regarding net neutrality, and Congressional efforts to change the way the government defines broadband and gathers data about broadband deployment and adoption.

This fall promises to be much different.