The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary is holding a hearing this morning on the Patent Reform Act:
10:00 a.m. Thursday, April 30, 2009
2141 Rayburn House Office Building
Hearing on H.R. 1260, the “Patent Reform Act of 2009”
Today’s testimony will most likely focus on the more contentious issues of H.R. 1260, including:
Post-Grant Opposition: H.R. 1260 provisions for expanded post-grant review and inter partes reexamination of U.S. patents. These broaden the grounds upon which a patent can be administratively challenged at any time during the life of the patent. This expansion of reexamination, on top of a new, time-limited post-grant opposition system, would cast a cloud of uncertainty over issued patents for decades.
Damages for Infringement: The apportionment of damages provisions in the House bill would be changed to introduce a new default rule for determining and applying reasonable royalty damages, using a new standard that directs courts to “ensure that a reasonable royalty is applied only to that economic value properly attributable to the patent’s specific contribution over the prior art.” The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a modified version of the reform bill that added a “gatekeeper” provision, which gives judgesmore authority to determine how to assess damages and to determine which of the many factors available under the law are appropriate for a jury to consider in calculating damages.
Witness List
David Simon
Chief Patent Counsel
Intel, Inc.
Phillip S. Johnson
Chief Intellectual Property Counsel
Johnson & Johnson
John R. Thomas
Professor
Georgetown University Law School
Jack W. Lasersohn
Partner
Vertical Group
Dean Kamen
Inventor
DEKA Research and Development Inc.
Mark Chandler
Senior Vice President
Cisco
Bernard Cassidy
Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Tessera Inc.
