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Negotiators looking to revamp America’s patent system say they have begun to find common purpose, but as a recent dust-up between two big players in the debate illustrates, a final agreement remains elusive.
The patent reform bill, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), has attracted an intense lobbying campaign from nearly all corners of Washington. High-tech interests like Microsoft and Apple have promoted the bill, while manufacturers and labor unions have opposed it. If lawmakers don’t tweak the complex set of laws just right, lobbyists say, America’s place as an epicenter of innovation may be weakened.
Universities and colleges have also watched the debate closely and last week complained that their position was being misinterpreted by a rival coalition. In a letter Feb. 5 to Leahy and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, the American Association of Universities (AAU) said a document distributed by the Coalition for Patent Fairness (CPF) “seriously misrepresents university views.”
The CPF, an alliance of several tech giants, indicated that academics were fully behind the bill as now written. However, AAU Executive Vice President John Vaughn wrote, “That is not so.”
Vaughn attached his own document to the letter, outlining schools’ lingering concerns with the bill.
Still, officials from universities and colleges say they are pleased with the progress the committee has made since the Judiciary panel took up the legislation last summer.
In an interview with The Hill, Vaughn described CPF’s memo as “unfortunate” but stressed a desire to press on with the discussions: “I think of that as in the past and all the stakeholders need to be focusing on reaching agreements to move this bill forward.”
Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who is representing CPF, agreed: “There are people on all sides working on this in good faith and we are going to get a good bill.”
A path towards compromise, if not an actual agreement, on one critical aspect of the patent reform bill was in fact found at a “stakeholders meeting” that Leahy sponsored last week.
The tentative agreement relates to how damages stemming from patent lawsuits are to be apportioned. Unions and manufacturers believe the bill could limit payouts, thus taking away a disincentive to infringe upon other people’s patents.
At the meeting last Thursday, stakeholders agreed to try to craft language, known as a “gatekeeper” provision, that would give clearer requirements to courts and judges on how best to handle evidence of infringement and determine patent damages. That measure could also help tamp down on the extraordinary settlement payments tech companies have had to pay out because of patent lawsuits, such as Microsoft’s $1.5 billion loss to Alcatel-Lucent over MP3 technology.
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