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Senate to Consider Patent Reform Bill Early Next Year

November 20, 2007

Although the Senate will likely run out of time to consider patent reform this year, a committee staff member said lawmakers are committed to passing the legislation before the end of the 110th Congress.

The Patent Reform Act will probably go to the Senate floor after Congress returns from the holidays in early 2008, Matthew Sandgren, counsel to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), said at CBI Research’s recent conference on Effective Patent, Intellectual Property and Trademark Strategies.

The medical device industry is opposed to the Patent Reform Act and its House counterpart. AdvaMed general counsel Christopher White has said the bills weaken important patent protections by making patents easier to challenge and cheaper to infringe.

However, Sandgren assured attendees at the conference that Hatch has stipulated the bill is “for innovators” and is aimed at preserving innovation.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Hatch, along with other members from both parties, are intent on moving forward with the bill before the presidential election gets into full swing. The House has passed its version of the bill, H.R. 1908, while the Senate version, S. 1145, has been voted out of committee and is awaiting floor time.

Information on H.R. 1908 can be found at thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.01908:. S. 1145 is available at thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.01145:.