Keeping Score
How many lawyers does it take to write this month’s column? Just one very smart one. Here’s a summary of legislation, litigation, and intellectual agitation from around the globe.
Saturday, July 15th, 2006
This year’s court docket continues to be eventful, with many cases relevant to software patents and future of open source. First and foremost are some patent legislation and cases, so let’s do a little catch-up there.
Patent Reform and Improvement
The European Commission has reintroduced its proposal on criminal penalties for intellectual property infringement, and unfortunately, there is little good news. The new proposal, approved on April 26, 2006, and identified as
2006-168, is not (yet) available to the public, although I have reviewed a copy of it. (If you’re interested in reading the proposal in its entirety, keep your eye on
http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL= en& DosId=193131# 37791.) I had been hopeful that the Commission would reconsider its position, especially its intent to assert criminal penalties for intentional patent infringement, but a change of heart seem unlikely. I will be surprised if this proposal doesn’t cause a lot of folks in the information technology industry, folks who don’t normally see eye-to-eye, to pull together to, at a minimum, remove intentional patent infringement from the directive.
Closer to home, intellectual property attorneys had hoped to see Senator Hatch’s alternative to
House Resolution 2795 by now, but his proposal appears to still be in drafting. (You can find H.R. 2795 at
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109: 4:./temp/~c109r6sSIh::.)
