Stakeholders across the spectrum on the patent revamp legislation debate were waiting at our deadline Monday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to release the final language of a long-awaited compromise on the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720). Stakeholders had widely anticipated the committee would release the compromise, contained in a manager’s amendment, when the Senate returned from recess Monday. The timing of the compromise’s release could signal whether the committee would be able to mark up S-1720 this week, stakeholders told us. Several said last week that they were optimistic that Senate Judiciary would finally move on S-1720 following positive negotiations over the two-week recess, which followed multiple postponements of the markup. Those negotiations yielded a draft compromise from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that included language for several controversial provisions not in the original S-1720 (CD April 28 p10).
The Senate Judiciary Committee returns this week ready to consider the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act, after using the recess to further refine a compromise on S-1720 that stakeholders told us they're optimistic will pass the committee. Senate Judiciary had postponed a vote multiple times before recess, but said just before the break that it reached a broadly defined compromise on controversial aspects (CD April 11 p9). Senate Judiciary scheduled a markup of S-1720 as part of an executive business meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday in 226 Dirksen.
A Senate companion to the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624) remains stalled in the Senate Intelligence Committee, as had been expected at the beginning of the year (CD Jan 6 p2). Industry observers told us they continue to see limited prospects for any information sharing bill to emerge from Senate Intelligence and pass the full Senate by the end of the current Congress. At the same time, agencies’ sharing efforts have begun to coalesce in a way that makes legislation less necessary in the near term, some experts say.
George Mason University’s Mercatus Center criticized recent federal government efforts to improve cybersecurity protections for critical infrastructure sectors, arguing in a report Thursday that those efforts “trade emergent resilience of the Internet for opaque control of it” (http://bit.ly/1nsRnsc). President Barack Obama’s 2013 cybersecurity executive order, among other things, resulted in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s collaboration with the private sector on the voluntary Cybersecurity Framework, with the “Version 1.0” framework going public in mid-February. The Department of Homeland Security is now using its Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community program to encourage the private sector to use the framework (CD Feb 13 p5).
The recently publicized Heartbleed bug (CD April 11 p13 ) is part of a “continuous cycle of weaknesses” that federal agencies regularly identify as they work to improve federal networks’ cybersecurity, said Rear Adm. Robert Day, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Cyber Command, during an Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association event Monday. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is responsible for cybersecurity on the .gov domain, said Friday that “core” publicly facing .gov sites are not vulnerable to Heartbleed and that it’s coordinating with other agencies to ensure other .gov sites are protected.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s tentative deal on a compromise version of the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) is a step forward in its effort to curb abusive patent litigation, but its decision to delay a vote until after the upcoming two-week recess could affect the outcome, stakeholders told us Thursday. Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement Wednesday that the committee had reached “a broad bipartisan agreement in principle” on the compromise, to be contained in a manager’s amendment. “This is a complex issue and we need additional time to draft the important provisions that have been the subject of discussion,” he said. Leahy said he plans to circulate a finalized manager’s amendment as soon as the Senate returns from the recess, which begins Friday, and the committee will consider S-1720 the same week. Senate Judiciary had already delayed the S-1720 markup three times, most recently postponing a meeting set for Tuesday specifically to consider the bill (CD April 9 p13).
The Senate Judiciary Committee appeared unlikely to mark up the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) Thursday, two stakeholders told us. “Thursday is going to be a stretch,” said Daniel Nazer, an Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney who’s focusing on Capitol Hill’s patent revamp efforts. The committee postponed the S-1720 markup Tuesday amid continued disagreements about controversial provisions in the bill, but Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., had said he hoped the committee would reach a deal in time to consider it Thursday (CD April 9 p13). Senate Judiciary had not rescheduled its executive business meeting, during which the committee would mark up the bill, at our deadline Wednesday. If the committee does not mark up S-1720 this week, it will have to wait until after the upcoming two-week recess. Members of the committee were still disagreeing over several longstanding issues in the bill, including the language in a proposed fee-shifting provision, an industry lawyer said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., blamed committee Republicans Tuesday for prompting a new delay in the committee’s consideration of the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) but said in a statement that he hoped the committee would reach a deal by the end of the day. Senate Judiciary planned to mark up S-1720 Tuesday afternoon (CD April 8 p13), but postponed that markup to 10 a.m. Thursday in 226 Dirksen. The House Commerce Subcommittee also took on patent abuse Tuesday, holding a hearing exploring possible legislation aimed at curbing abusive pre-litigation patent demand letters.
The Senate Judiciary Committee remained scheduled at our deadline Monday to mark up the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) Tuesday, but it remained unclear if the committee would be able to reach an agreement in time, industry officials told us. The committee is set to meet at 2:30 p.m. in 106 Dirksen. Senate Judiciary had scheduled the Tuesday meeting so the S-1720 markup would not bog down the committee’s regular Thursday session, but it may still end up on the docket for Thursday, an industry lawyer said. Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement Monday that he still hopes “we can begin consideration of that package tomorrow.” Leahy and other members of the committee have said for weeks that negotiations are close to completion on a compromise version of S-1720, the Senate’s marquee bill to curb patent litigation abuse (CD April 4 p9).
The Senate Judiciary Committee appeared to still be in negotiations Friday afternoon on compromise language for the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720), parties told us. The committee had delayed a markup of the bill until Tuesday afternoon to allow additional work on the compromise, which will be introduced in the form of a manager’s amendment. Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., had said during a committee meeting Thursday that those negotiations were in the “final stages” (CD April 4 p9). The committee appeared to still be “hashing out the fee-shifting language, the joinder provision that attaches to the fee-shifting, and the discovery reforms,” said Daniel Nazer, an Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney who focuses on patent revamp efforts. The committee has promised to release the language of the manager’s amendment and any other amendments up for debate well before the markup, meaning there’s a tight deadline for negotiations to conclude, Nazer said. A Monday posting of the manager’s amendment would be particularly problematic because it would be difficult for stakeholders to “digest a 60-page bill in a day,” said an industry lobbyist. The markup is set to begin at 2:30 p.m. in 106 Dirksen.