Leahy IP Bill Teed Up But Tough To Move
Legislation aimed at cracking down on counterfeiting and piracy has been added to the Senate Judiciary Committee's agenda for its Thursday mark-up -- but don’t hold your breath that anything will happen with the bill in the near term. Of course, it is possible that the measure introduced by Chairman Patrick Leahy last week could come up, but committee rules allow for any bill listed for the first time to be held over once.
Plus, a partisan spat over judicial nominees has made it hard for the committee to get a quorum and Republican members didn’t show at the committee's last business meeting. Ranking member Arlen Specter -- who cosponsored the bill with Leahy and Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio -- criticized the pace at which judicial appointments have been considered by the panel and the Senate on the whole.
The bill in question was a compromise among several intellectual property enforcement measures introduced this Congress. It would provide authorization for the attorney general to enforce civil copyright laws; improve civil intellectual property laws by only requiring registration of a copyrighted work before bringing a civil infringement suit; and eliminate other "unnecessary burdens" to launching infringement suits. It also would harmonize forfeiture provisions in criminal copyright infringement cases.
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