CONTENTS
CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES
- Two Senate Panels Plan Hearings Next Week on Patent Legislation
- Professors Urge Congress Not to Change U.S. Patent Policy Based on Bad Data
OTHER
- AAU Publishes Policy Brief on Basic Research at U.S. Universities
CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES
TWO SENATE PANELS PLAN HEARINGS NEXT WEEK ON PATENT LEGISLATION
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on March 18 titled, “The Impact of Abusive Patent Litigation Practices on the American Economy.” The hearing will broadly address perceived abuses of the patent litigation system, including fraudulent demand letters and nuisance lawsuits. The session is likely to touch on particular issues that are the subject of the Innovation Act (H.R. 9), the patent reform legislation currently pending in the House.
Among those testifying at the hearing is Dr. Michael Crum, Vice President for Economic Development and Business Engagement at Iowa State University.
The following day, March 19, the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship will hold a hearing tentatively titled, “Patent Reform: Protecting Innovation and Entrepreneurship.” The hearing will focus on small businesses and entrepreneurs, examining how they interact with the patent system and the potential impact on them of proposed patent legislation. At this writing, the hearing has not been announced on the Committee’s website.
PROFESSORS URGE CONGRESS NOT TO CHANGE U.S. PATENT POLICY BASED ON BAD DATA
A group of 40 economists and law professors from around the country sent a letter to congressional leaders on March 10 expressing concerns that “many flawed, unreliable, or incomplete studies” are being used to promote changes in U.S. patent law. They said that as Congress considers legislation to address abusive patent litigation, “it is imperative that your decisions be informed by reliable data that accurately reflect the real-world performance of the U.S. patent system.”
The group noted, for example, that patent “trolls” do not bring the majority of patent lawsuits and that patent infringement filings were down in 2014. The claim that patent trolls cost U.S. businesses $29 billion a year in direct costs “has been roundly criticized,” they said. The letter added:
“We are not opposed to sensible, targeted reforms that consider the costs created by both plaintiffs and defendants in patent litigation. Yet, tinkering with the engine of innovation— the U.S. patent system—on the basis of flawed and incomplete evidence threatens to impede this country’s economic growth. Many of the wide-ranging changes to the patent system currently under consideration by Congress raise serious concerns in this regard.”
OTHER
AAU PUBLISHES POLICY BRIEF ON BASIC RESEARCH AT U.S. UNIVERSITIES
To provide quick, easy-to-use information on the role of U.S. research universities in conducting basic research, AAU has published a new data and policy brief, Basic Scientific and Engineering Research at U.S. Universities. The brief is the first of AAU’s planned series on U.S. research data and policy issues.
This four-page document uses text and charts to provide an overview of how the nation supports basic research, which the National Science Foundation defines as “systematic study directed toward fuller knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific applications towards processes or products in mind.” The AAU brief includes details on which federal agencies support basic research and in which disciplines.