By Donald Zuhn --
Earlier today, the technology website Ars Technica posted a report that the Senate patent reform bill (S. 1145) "has been taken off the [Senate] schedule." Because Ars Technica did not provide any additional information, we sought confirmation that the bill was indeed dead -- at least as far as the 110th Congress is concerned. For patent practitioners who have been paying close attention to developments in the Senate, the Ars Technica report is likely to be not too surprising, especially since S. 1145 was supposed to come to a floor vote in mid-April (see "BIO Commends Senator Specter for Patent Reform Stance"). However, confirmation of the Senate bill's demise would certainly give patent practitioners more good news to focus on while awaiting word from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as to whether it will appeal the decision in Tafas/GSK v. Dudas (the Patent Office has until May 31st to file for appeal).
Seeking confirmation of S. 1145's passing, we first checked THOMAS, but found that the latest information about the Senate patent reform bill was its placement on Senate legislative calendar on January 24th. Next, we checked the Senate calendar of business at the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) website (GPO Access), but noticed that the calendar for May 6, 2008 still lists S. 1145.
A Senate staff member later confirmed that S. 1145 was still on the Senate calendar. However, that same staff member (who works for a Senator on the U.S. Judiciary Committee) noted that the time that was being reserved for S. 1145 had come and gone, and that barring a compromise on the damages, post-grant review, inequitable conduct, and AQS provisions, it was very unlikely that the Senate would find another place on its schedule for "a lengthy patent debate." In checking out Ars Technica's story, we also heard that Senator Patrick Leahy's chief of staff, Susan Davies, has moved the patent reform bill files out of her office. Of course, we also heard that Ms. Davies is not actively working on the patent reform bill at the moment and is not involved in compromise negotiations regarding the bill (these negtiations are reportedly being spearheaded by Senators Orrin Hatch and Arlen Specter), and so it may not be all that surprising that the S. 1145 files have been moved from her office.
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