An excellent blog posting by Gene Quinn of IP Watchdog breaks down the politics of the current effort in Congress to reform existing United States patent laws. Mr. Quinn points out that because of the likely importance of the upcoming 2010 congressional election cycle, no member of Congress will be looking to involve themselves in any voting matter that could affect their ability to raise campaign funds for the 2010 elections. As such, Mr. Quinn suggests that despite whatever progress has been made thus far by Congress in working out a patent reform bill that is acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans (and Mr. Lieberman, who I believe is kind of a Demo-Republi-Crat), that progress will not matter unless the bill comes to a vote before Labor Day 2009. If no vote comes by then, it seems likely that patent reform will again be on the shelf for some time.
Mr. Quinn’s article may be found at http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/04/30/uncertain-future-for-patent-reform-legislation/id=2980/.
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