The House Judiciary Committee approved this morning with little objection a bill that creates a pilot program designed to allow certain U.S. district court judges to become experts in patent law and take cases specifically rather than have them be assigned randomly (if the judge assigned it chooses to pass it on). The bill, by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Cal.) and Adam Schiff (D-Cal.), was modified at the markup at the request of Issa. It states among other things that for this reform to be implemented, a court must have at least 10 judges, and at least 3 must opt into the system. The idea is to reduce the risk of plaintiffs forum-shopping.

House Judiciary IP Subommittee Chairman Berman (D-Cal.) said he liked the forum-shopping revision, but emphasized there remains a need for comprehensive patent reform. Schiff agreed.

Issa, former chairman of CEA, knows a bit about patents. He became rich as a car-alarm designer; his voice is the one you hear telling you that you're too close to someone else's vehicle (do people still use those alarms?).

I was at the markup to see action on the Copyright Modernization Act of 2006, which is basically a combination of the Section 115 Reform Act and the orphan works bill. My understanding is that as I type this, representatives for artists, music publishers, songwriters, labels and others are meeting with House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Smith (R-Tex.) and Berman -- or their senior staff -- to iron everything out. Smith told me after the markup that he thought they were very close to resolving matters, and he was bullish on the bill being marked up next week.

I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about this bill; am open to thoughts from one and all.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 2:27 PM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain, Legislation and Legislators, Patents

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