Monday, March 23, 2009

Kyl Quietly Reintroduces Patent Bill

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., unceremoniously reintroduced a bill last week that would make changes to the U.S. patent system -- an alternative to legislation sponsored in the 110th Congress and again this session by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Under Kyl's plan, which has been tweaked slightly since it was last introduced, litigants in patent infringement lawsuits would be encouraged to use precise economic analyses to determine damages rather than less exact calculations. Supporters of Leahy's bill, which is scheduled for a Thursday mark-up, want a solution that includes specific rules for apportionment of damages in patent lawsuits.

In drafting Kyl's bill last year, staff consulted extensively with critics of Leahy's proposal, including the pharmaceutical and life-sciences industries and members of the Innovation Alliance, a group of small tech firms and companies whose business models depend on patent licenses. A number of others like the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, the Biotechnology Industry Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association, and American Intellectual Property Law Association also weighed in. At the time, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Senior Vice President Ken Johnson told CongressDaily that Kyl's proposal "pushed the ball forward and helped set the table for responsible reform."

Noticeably absent from the dialogue with Kyl's staff was the Coalition for Patent Fairness, which represents Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft, Time Warner, and others. That group, which backs Leahy's approach, said in a statement last fall that Kyl's bill "will not fix the nation's patent system, which is broken and draining critical resources from healthy sectors of our economy." At the time, Hatch issued a statement calling Kyl's measure "a worthy attempt" but not a "silver bullet." Read CongressDaily's earlier coverage of the Kyl bill here, here, and here (subscription required).