Senate Passes H.R. 1249

By Donald Zuhn --

After considering three amendments, rejecting two and tabling a third, the Senate today voted 89 to 9 in favor of H.R. 1249, the House version of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.  Opposing passage of the bill were Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT), John McCain (R-AZ), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Rand Paul (R-KY); Senators John Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) did not vote; a list of Senators voting for passage can be found here.  While proponents of the bill secured a wide margin in favor of passage of the legislation, the margin was not as overhwelming as the Senate's 95-5 vote in favor of S. 23 in March (see "Senate Passes S. 23").

Before voting on H.R. 1249, the Senate considered three amendments to the legislation.  The first amendment to be considered, SA 600 (Congressional Record (September 7, 2011) p. S5392), was submitted by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).  This amendment, which would have struck Section 37 concerning the calculation of the 60-day period for application of patent term extension (the so-called MedCo amendment), was rejected by a narrow 51-47 vote.  The second amendment to be considered, SA 595 (Congressional Record (September 7, 2011) p. S5390), was submitted by Sen. Cantwell.  This amendment, which offered a replacement for Section 18 providing a transitional program for covered business-method patents, was rejected by a 85-13 vote (with one Senator voting present).  The third and final amendment to be considered, SA 599 (Congressional Record (September 7, 2011) p. S5391), was submitted by Sen. Coburn.  This amendment, which would have replaced Section 22 of the House bill concerning USPTO funding with the USPTO funding provisions of S. 23, was tabled by a close 50-48 vote.  Under Senate rules, the agreement to table the third amendment was equivalent to defeating the amendment tabled.

H.R. 1249 will now be sent to the President for his signature (based on the President's schedule, any signing is unlikely to occur tomorrow).

Comments

[EG]

Don,

Well, the Gong of Doom has sounded for the last time for the AIA. But at least give three cheers to Senator Tom Coburn for having the integrity to challenge a bad deal on fee diversion (and I still wish he was my state Senator)!

[The Big Lebowski]

Well, after months of complaining and writing to our congressional representatives about how this bill was a bad thing, now it's time for us to face up to this nightmare and do what lawyers do best when facing legal uncertainty: play off our clients' fears and charge them up the wazoo for it. They win, we win, they lose, we still win.

Thanks, Congress. And thanks, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and everyone else who reminded us doubters that American politicians are still world-class when comes to their ability to be bought. Just make sure your grandkids learn Mandarin.

/sarcasm off/

[Paul San Quentin]

Nah, all we need to do now is sit back and wait for the 200,000 jobs to sprout up on the back of this legislation. Wow...even though I know that proposition is about as likely as my winning the PowerBall, it just felt good to simply write it. I guess that's how things happen in politics, say it, it feels good, assert it further, it becomes 'truth,' when it is shown to not be truth don't accept any responsibility - just blame it on the current folks in power.

[Virtuess]

This will not be enough. Not even close. We are facing a horrible situation financially because of our global standing. We have a country that spends most of its money on "defense" and "homeland security" when we are anything, but on the defensive. These so called priorities are never in question when these cannot be paid for when our country is suffering. There is a time when a kingdom has walls to high. Not until our country reels in a lot of this overseas expenditures and concentrates on bringing spending home will we see the changes we all need to continue helping others at home and overseas. Not to mention our senate which is finally becoming unbogged.. . hopefully. I am sure fear and anger are guiding most Americans though.

[EG]

OK, I realize the AIA is an utter “sham” (and have said as much), but we’ve now got to realize that the AIA is now “water under the bridge/over the dam.” It’s now time to figure out how to combat this monstronsity. In that regard, consider my prior post on IPWatchdog: http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/07/07/american-davids-of-innovation-start-your-engines-strategies-for-coping-with-first-to-file-under-the-america-invents-act/id=18008/ . I have no intention of letting the “Goliaths” (aka, the Coaltiion for Patent Fairness, such as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, etc.) profit from this legislative nonsense without a fight (one that will likely be “tooth and nail”).

[patent litigation]

Senator Maria Cantwell may have said it best: "This is not a patent reform bill. This is a big corporation patent give away that tramples on the rights of small inventors." It's certainly a shame that Sen. Coburn's amendment didn't stand a chance.
http://www.aminn.org/