[IP] Patent Reform Act stalls in the Senate

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Kurt Albershardt [kurt@nv.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 10:45 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Patent Reform Act stalls in the Senate

<http://www.cnet.com/8301-13555_1-9941241-34.html>

May 12, 2008 6:05 AM PDT
Patent Reform Act stalls in the Senate
Posted by Steve Tobak

After years of heated debate and lobbying, the Patent Reform Act of 2007, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and was scheduled for a Senate vote this session, has been taken off the Senate's calendar. It can be revived, but its momentum has effectively fizzled.

Apparently, the Senate has better things to do with its time.

At this point, I don't wish to rehash the issues of, or my viewpoint <http://www.cnet.com/8301-13555_1-9887374-34.html> on, the Patent Reform Act. Besides, as I've said, both sides in the debate were after only their own self-interests. Such is life in a capitalist society. (I think that's a good thing.)

What does fascinate me, though, are the strange alliances the debate over patent reform created. The Coalition for Patent Fairness--a group of more than 150 high-tech and financial-services companies that included Adobe Systems, Apple, Cisco Systems, eBay, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, News Corp., Oracle, SAP, Time Warner, and virtually all the big banks--supported and lobbied heavily for the bill.

In the other camp were the entire biotech and pharmaceutical industries, 3M, Caterpillar, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, The National Venture Capital Association, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), The AFL-CIO, and a host of other labor unions and manufacturing associations

Strange bedfellows, indeed.

In addition, support for the bill wasn't as partisan as one might expect. Sixty Republicans and 160 Democrats voted for the House bill, while 117 Republicans and 58 Democrats voted against it. Not exactly homogeneous, but surely not partisan, either.

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