Irate Over Patent Reform Debate
When stakeholders in the ongoing patent reform debate on Capitol Hill don't get invited to a closed-door meeting with congressional staffers, they get a wee bit testy. Case in point: the Professional Inventors Alliance.
The group issued a press release on Monday announcing that staffers for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were going to meet later in the day with interested parties but PIA was snubbed. Instead representatives from large companies got a seat at the table, officials complained.
Upon hearing about the meeting last week, PIA offered to make intellectual property expert Irving Kayton of George Mason University and economist Pat Choate available. The group claimed a staffer turned them down.
In its release, PIA demanded that the meeting be canceled and rescheduled with all stakeholders invited. "This sort of conduct by Leahy's staff is an outrage," the group said. PIA also accused a named Leahy staffer of personally rebuffing prior attempts to include the inventor community.
The bill currently being considered by the Senate (S. 1145) "would kill America's economy by facilitating theft and transfer of American ingenuity to developing countries," PIA argued. When asked, a Leahy spokeswoman did not have details about meeting attendees.
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