White House Backs Innovation Act, With Some Reservations
The White House endorsed HR-3309 Tuesday, telling the House Rules Committee in a statement it believes the bill “builds on the important patent reforms contained in the America Invents Act ... and successfully implemented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The bill would improve incentives for future innovation while protecting the overall integrity of the patent system” (http://1.usa.gov/1avFvNn).
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The House Rules Committee at our deadline was considering rules for floor activity on HR-3309, which is to come to the floor Thursday. The White House said HR-3309 includes many of the legislative recommendations it made in early June to remedy what it called abusive patent litigation (CED June 5 p3), but expressed concerns about the bill’s provisions on post-issuance review proceedings, including provisions on patent claim construction. House Intellectual Property Subcommittee ranking member Mel Watt, D-N.C., told House Rules that the White House letter was not a total endorsement of the bill.
House Rules received 26 proposed amendments to HR-3309 by its Monday deadline, including a “Democratic substitute” version of the bill from Watt and House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich. Conyers and Watt introduced a near-identical version of the Democratic substitute when House Judiciary marked up HR-3309 late last month; the amendment didn’t pass, while the bill passed on a 33-5 vote. Conyers and Watt also submitted an amendment to House Rules that would allow the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to retain all of its user fees -- another issue the two had brought up at markup. Many other amendments also echo House Judiciary members’ concerns about the bill that were not addressed at markup. Other amendments include one from Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., that would require the use of a bond to cover discovery costs in a patent case beyond core documents. An amendment from Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, would delay discovery in a patent case until the court rules on any motion for a change of venue.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., urged House Rules Tuesday to create a rule that would allow the House to “move expeditiously” on HR-3309. The bill “takes meaningful steps” to address abusive patent practices and, contrary to critics’ claims, does not encroach on the judicial branch, he said. Watt told House Rules he believes the House should delay consideration of the bill because few stakeholders have had enough time to evaluate the bill and “express themselves.” Watt said he and Goodlatte agree “patent trolls” are a problem, but said it was not necessary to rush into legislation to fix it. Watt faulted Goodlatte for rushing the bill through House Judiciary and for attempting to rush the bill to the House floor, saying the bill remains flawed and would undermine the judicial branch. The Democratic substitute is also flawed, “but we believe it’s a better baseline” to address abusive patent litigation than HR-3309, Watt said. Goodlatte said the bill was “10 years in the making” and that the committee’s staff had widely circulated two discussion drafts of HR-3309 for stakeholder input.
Watt also signed onto a letter Monday asking the House to delay consideration of the bill until after Jan. 1. The other signatories were Reps. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. “All members deserve a fair opportunity to examine and carefully consider the effects of a bill regarding a complex subject like the nexus of the patent and litigation systems,” the congressmen said. “We shouldn’t be forced into the position of having to pass a bill in order to learn what’s in it.”
Former PTO Director David Kappos said Tuesday he had major concerns about HR-3309, during a conference call with reporters and representatives from the Innovation Alliance and other groups opposed to the bill. The American Conservative Union, the Club for Growth and eight other conservative groups also announced Tuesday their opposition to HR-3309 in its current form. The groups told House leaders the bill would “weaken American patents, patent-holders and the ability of innovators -- particularly individual, independent inventors -- to secure their constitutionally guaranteed right to their discoveries. ... The bill’s provisions apply to all litigants, not just ‘patent trolls,’ and as a result will hamper innovation, diminishing American competitiveness and reducing American jobs.”