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Opposing Industry Groups Fire Volleys In U.S. Patent Reform Debate

October 26, 2007

Two competing patent legislation lobbying groups are on opposite sides of the Patent Reform Act.

The PRA is making its way through the U.S. Congress. It has passed the House and is awaiting votes in the Senate.

In favor is the  Coalition for Patent Fairness, which includes Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Amazon, Dell, eBay, Intel and SAP. They have just sent a letter to U.S. Senate leaders claiming the bill will "benefit all American workers and American consumers,." said the letter, signed by 128 companies and organizations, including Amazon, Dell, eBay, and Intel.

The Coalition is on record as advocating that "patent speculators"- often small patent-holding companies and/or tech companies- often challenge existing patents in a manner seen by many as overly generalistic or vague.

The Innovation Alliance is clearly on the other side.

In fact, they've written a letter to U.S. Senate influentials as well. This group consists in part of  the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, the NanoBusiness Alliance, Cargill, Coca-Cola, and Qualcomm.

"No compelling case has been made for a bill written in this fashion," the letter says in part.  "It is based on claims of a crisis in the current patent system that does not exist, supported by selective assertions which do not hold up under scrutiny."

The measure would point to a new way to challenge existing patents, as well as allow courts to alter the current way they assign damages in patent-infringement cases.




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