By Donald Zuhn --
Yesterday, we reported on a letter sent by Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez to Senators Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter, in which the Secretary reaffirmed the Bush Administration's support for Section 11 of the Senate patent reform bill (S. 1145). Section 11 would require that applicants submit Applicant Quality Submissions (AQSs), which would consist of search reports, patentability analyses, and "any other information relevant to patentability that the Director, in his discretion, determines necessary." In his letter to Senators Leahy and Specter, Secretary Gutierrez noted that the Administration "strongly supports the AQS provision in the bill," calling it one of the "key elements" of S. 1145.
We also reported yesterday on the continuing efforts by the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) to encourage its members to contact their U.S. Senators and voice their opposition to section 11 of S. 1145. It is a call to arms that has been sounded on Patent Docs for the past few months (see "U.S. Senate Mailbox Filling with Letters against Passage of Patent 'Reform' Bill").
To make it even easier to write your Senator and lobby for the removal of the AQS provision, we are posting copies of letters that were sent to Illinois Senators Richard Durbin
and Barack Obama
by a number of attorneys at McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP (including all of the Patent Docs authors). The letters were prepared by MBHB attorney Larry Aaronson with the help of IPO Director of Government Relations Dana Colarulli. We strongly encourage our readers to use these letters as templates, and let their voices be heard. Before it's too late.
• Download letter to Senator Richard Durbin here.
• Download letter to Senator Barack Obama here.
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