Tag: Patent

Contact:

Gwen Hinze
International Policy Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
415-436-9333 x110
gwen@eff.org

Art Brodsky
Public Knowledge
202-518-0020 (o) 301-908-7715 (c)
abrodsky@publicknowledge.org

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge have filed suit against the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), demanding information about a secret intellectual property enforcement treaty that the government has put on a fast track to completion. (A copy of the suit is available here.)

The United States, Canada, the European Community, Switzerland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates are currently negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:

“We are concerned that several provisions in this bill could have harmful, if unintended, consequences that would harm consumers. The bill rightly targets enforcement of copyright law against commercial infringers, but some of these same enforcement provisions are likely to hurt ordinary consumers.

Title: A bill to enhance remedies for violations of intellectual property laws, and for other purposes.

• The text of this bill is available on Thomas.
• The version, as passed by the U.S. Senate on Sep 26, 2008, is available here (PDF).

The first Senate hearing I attended struck me as a “dog and pony show” since the witnesses were presented for display purposes, merely echoing the pre-determined opinions of the presiding Senators. I’m beginning to see the animals in a less benign light.

Today, Senator Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, held a hearing on “International Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights and American Competitiveness,” with Ranking Member, Senator Grassley (R-IA), in the wings and with Senators Kyl (R-AZ) and Roberts (R-KS) making cameo appearances towards the end. As for the witnesses, the deck was stacked, as appears to be more the norm than the exception.

We recently scanned all of the documents filed in response to the USTR’s request for public comments regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). They are presented below, if sometimes angularly, as well as on our issue summary page here.

Representatives from the US, EC, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, S. Korea, Canada, and Mexico have been holding close-to clandestine meetings over the past year to construct a trade agreement that tightens the level of regulations on IP-related goods and services. This proposed pact is called ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. No official agendas or results of the talks have been released, though a “discussion paper” was leaked to Wikileaks in late May. This discussion paper is the basic extent of the world’s knowledge on ACTA, yet some version of ACTA will apparently be up for adoption at the G8 Summit in July.

It must be spring, and a delightful spring at that. Like swallows to Capistrano, numerous pigeons created by the IP mafia over the years are at last coming home to roost. Today’s NYT provides the most recent returning pigeon dropping its unintended consequence out of a clear blue sky.

In re Bilski is a case before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that could, if decided properly, prevent patents on business methods and other abstract ideas. The case came out of Bilski’s challenge to the Patent Office’s rejection of a patent application on a method of managing investment risks due to weather changes.

Public Knowledge, along with Consumers Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief with the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic, arguing that non-technological inventions, like abstract business methods, should not be patented. The brief also sets out a five-part test to help courts determine whether or not an invention is technological, as opposed to an abstract idea only marginally connected to technology.

Congress came back to town this week from its winter holiday break, and even though the economy, the war, the environment and the election will take center stage over the next year, Public Knowledge will have its hands full with a variety of technology, communications, copyright and patent matters. Here is a rundown of the specific issues that are likely to be addressed in 2008, in Congress and at the agencies with which PK works:

TITLE: To enhance remedies for violations of intellectual property laws, and for other purposes.

The full text of this bill is available on Thomas. Follow discussion about it on OpenCongress.