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Legislation Archives

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04.25.2007

IPI oped... first do no harm to IP

In honor of World IP day, Tom Giovanetti on IP in The Hill.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 11:17 AM | Legislation , Patents

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04.19.2007

Patent Reform--Post Grant Review Promising?

Can a change in the party that controls Congress make a real difference in the effectiveness with which some of the thornier problems of public administration are visited, and revisited by the legislature every year? The summer of 2007 will tell. Some cynics might deny even the possibility of a well-functioning public administration, but surely the Democrats would not. What better place to try than the patent office, when so much economic growth now comes from companies at the cutting edge of technology?

Patent reform is high on the legislative agenda, with Sen. Leahy having introduced legislation supporting post-grant review (S. 1145). Earlier, Rep. Rick Boucher and Rep. Howard Berman had introduced the Patents Depend on Quality Act of 2006.

Continue reading Patent Reform--Post Grant Review Promising? . . .

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 3:30 PM | Legislation , Patents

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02.27.2007

Boucher and Doolittle, What Do You Have Against Creators?

Rick Boucher is at it again. A few years ago he gave us the Music Online Choice Act (MOCA), a bill that would have imposed compulsory licensing on the digital music market because it was so obvious that studios were going to dominate that market; hey, notice all the download services are independent of studios, and iTunes even has the market power to dictate retail price? Now he is back and has joined with John Doolittle to introduce the FAIR USE Act of 2007. This is Boucher's latest iteration of his legislation to gut the DMCA, which he first introduced before the DMCA became law almost 10 years ago. This bill is at best unnecessary and at worst dangerous. Absolutely no part of the bill respects the rights of creators to designate through the market which rights will convey with their creations.

Continue reading Boucher and Doolittle, What Do You Have Against Creators? . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 5:21 PM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain , Congress , Content Controls , DMCA , DRM , Free Culture Movement , Legislation , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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02.17.2007

First House Committee Patent Hearings for 110th Congress

The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property held the 110th Congress' first hearings on US patent system reform- American Innovation at Risk: The Case for Patent Reform. Testimonies were given by Professor Adam Jaffe of Brandeis Univ., Mark Myers, formerly of Xerox Corp. and current advisor at the NAS STEP Board, Suzanne Michel of the FTC and Daniel Ravicher of the Public Patent Foundation. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Subcommittee, opened the hearings, stating:

Patents are one of the cornerstones of the American economy...at the foundation of life saving drugs and groundbreaking technologies. It is beyond dispute that robust patent protection promotes innovation. However, I also believe... the patent system is strongest, and that incentives for innovation are greatest, when the system only protects... patents that are truly inventive. When functioning properly, the patent system should encourage and enable inventors to push the boundaries of knowledge... If the patent system allows questionable patents to issue and... not provide adequate safeguards against patent abuses, the system will stifle innovation and interfere with competitive market forces.

Looking through the testimonies, there is general consensus that patents have and can continue to play an important role in innovation, and that judicial-administrative aspects of patent policy should be amended to improve the patent system.

Among arguments that distinguished the presentations, Jaffe had the insight that patents promote innovation above that possible in their absence, and stated patent reform should aim primarily at comprehensive, not industry/ technology specific, issues. Michel put forth critiques of how firms should leverage patents, which may reflect a narrow perception that patents promote innovation only through enforcing exclusivity. Myers, who has helped direct patent studies at the NAS, proffered that patents have spurred innovation for the past several decades and thus there is no need for fundamental changes. Ravicher raised several unanswered points with criticism of software patents, but his proposals for the general patent system are important.

Continue reading First House Committee Patent Hearings for 110th Congress . . .

posted by Noel Le @ 8:05 AM | Academia , Legislation , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation , Patents

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02.16.2007

Redirecting the Mob

An excellent story by BNA tells us Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) plans to reintroduce yet again a bill to defang the DMCA. When Tech Daily approached me about this possibility recently, they quoted me thusly:

Patrick Ross, a senior fellow for the Progress and Freedom Foundation, is not optimistic that the bill would be 'any more market-friendly' than previous versions. He called the legislation 'hazardous to competition.' Boucher is 'inclined to use the power of the federal government to mandate terms he would like to see in the digital content industry instead of letting consumers demand through the market what they would like to see,' Ross said.

The BNA story suggests that for once in my life at least I was prescient. Boucher plans to put into law a fair-use exemption for space-shifting creative works in the home environment. Never mind the fact that I saw all sorts of business models doing just that at CES in Las Vegas, from the opening keynote by Bill Gates through the entire conference. Boucher makes clear in his BNA interview that he doesn't want to let consumers in the market direct the process; he instead hopes to impose mob rule through congressional fiat.

Continue reading Redirecting the Mob . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 3:09 PM | Legislation

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02. 6.2007

The Business of Show Business: Congress

The two guiding lights in copyright on Capitol Hill right now are Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman; both spoke at today's MPAA Business of Show Business conference. Other champions of copyright also spoke there, such as Senator Dianne Feinstein and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, but I'm going to focus on Leahy and Berman in this entry because any copyright-related legislation has to go through them. As many readers know, I'm congenitally resistant to government action, and generally consider an idle Congress a good Congress. But readers also know I'm rabidly pro-property, and thinkers from Locke onward have recognized that for property rights to be respected in a market, a governmental role is essential. Leahy and Berman understand that, and I have every confidence in their vision for a copyright agenda in the 110th Congress.

Continue reading The Business of Show Business: Congress . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 5:50 PM | Legislation

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12.12.2006

Conyers and Smith

John Conyers, incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has a strong track record on IP, in particular on protecting artists; he's a particular supporter of Motown artists, natch. Lamar Smith, who for the last two Congresses has chaired the IP subcommittee, is also a solid IP champion, as I have noted. Last week the Republicans decided he should be full committee ranking member.

Watching the dynamic between Conyers and Jim Sensenbrenner, the outoing chairman, it didn't really appear the two enjoyed being in the same room together. In fact, Conyers often would physically keep his distance during hearings and markups, even though they were supposed to sit together, and the two never made eye contact, even when speaking to each other. Most awkward. But Smith seems to have cordial relations with both Rs and Ds throughout the committee (and Congress). Conyers-Smith, two nice men and IP supporters, should be a very solid team in the 110th Congress.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 9:56 AM | Legislation

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12.11.2006

Trade and IP

Regular readers will have seen my occasional rant about how support for free trade is in decline in the U.S., and how this does not augur well for increased IP enforcement globally. Two modest trade bills snuck out the door of Congress before the Republicans turned out the lights over the weekend, and I've written on that development -- and the need for a new pro-trade voice -- on the PFF blog.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:51 AM | Enforcement , Legislation

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12. 4.2006

Gowers Sneak Peek

On Wednesday former journalist Andrew Gowers will release the findings of his U.K. government-commissioned study of U.K. copyright law. Great Britain has been a staunch defender of IP and IP has fueled creative and economic success there, so it begs the question, why have a commission at all? What's the problem? Not surprisingly, the existence of the commission has given some copyright defenders pause.

Gowers gave us a sneak peek of his findings in the Sunday Times (another hat-tip to Alec van Gelder). The piece reminded me of the speeches I read by EU officials related to the digital economy. I find myself agreeing with many of their points, then am concerned by the conclusions they seem to draw from those points.

Continue reading Gowers Sneak Peek . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 10:55 AM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain , International , Internet , Legislation , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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11.14.2006

Russia, Vietnam, Free Trade and the 110th Congress

On the one hand, you have a nation that has shown minimal respect for international copyright law, allowing a rogue MP3 site to sell song downloads to which it has no rights. On the other hand, there are signs things are improving, and the nation has a large population with some level of wealth. Going on the Bastiat-like assumption that there should be more trade rather than less, I would have to say we should be encouraged by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's announcement that the US and Russia are concluding bilateral negotiations that could lead to a treaty signing next week and moving Russia toward the WTO, membership of which it has sought for over a decade. IP has been a major focus of the USTR, and a major sticking point with Russia, as USTR Susan Schwab has said, but OUSTR also said progress was made on that front:

Continue reading Russia, Vietnam, Free Trade and the 110th Congress . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 2:32 PM | Legislation

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10.25.2006

This Just In: Dogs Still Hate Cats

posted by Patrick Ross @ 1:08 PM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain , Broadcast Flag , Content Controls , DMCA , DRM , Free Culture Movement , Legislation , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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10.17.2006

Congressional Seminar on Copyright Modernization

posted by Patrick Ross @ 6:06 PM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain , Legislation

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09.27.2006