Posts in Capitol Hill

Any brand owner with an anticounterfeiting program will tell you that one of their biggest frustrations with online enforcement is that the information online marketplaces keep on third-party sellers is not always accurate or complete. Counterfeit sellers will do anything they can to fly under the radar online, often providing false names, addresses, and other contact information in their online marketplace profiles. Accordingly, it is quite common for brand owners to reach a literal dead end in their investigations of third-party sellers. The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act (the “INFORM Consumers Act”), recently signed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, aims to make it more difficult for counterfeit sellers to fly under the radar by requiring online marketplaces to collect, verify, and disclose certain information from high-volume third-party sellers to consumers.

Does Patent Quality Assurance (PQA) have a relationship with Intel? That is fast becoming the question du jour relating to the saga over the VLSI patents, to which Intel is on the hook for over $2 billion after losing a patent infringement action in district court. The factual predicate for the belief that there may be some relationship between PQA and Intel stems from the filing of an inter partes review (IPR) challenge on the part of PQA against the VLSI patents responsible for the $2 billion verdict against Intel. There has been a question in whispers behind the scenes about whether and to what extent the PQA challenge to the VLSI patents is a subterfuge because Intel could not challenge the patents in an IPR itself.

Shortly after the Republican membership of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet was announced, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, released the Democratic rosters for each subcommittee. Below, we profile the Democrats who will occupy the House IP Subcommittee during the 118th Congress, including Representatives hailing from a well-known research district in North Carolina and a California lawmaker whose home district lays claim to a major space R&D laboratory.

This week in Washington IP news, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation begins hearings on the nomination of Gigi B. Sohn to be a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner, and the Senate Committee on Finance discusses eliminating counterfeits. Also, the Brookings Institute holds a panel discussion on the upcoming Supreme Court oral hearings for Gonzalez v. Google that will impact the future of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a number of bills targeting the pharmaceutical industry. The bills passed on a bipartisan basis and with minimal discussion, by a voice vote, though Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) reiterated concerns he has had since the bills’ introduction. Here is a recap of what the bills aim to do.

This week in Washington IP news, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations discusses U.S.-China relations after a tense weekend, a house committee holds a hearing on removing barriers to capital for small businesses, and the AEI talks to experts about the growing industry of metascience and its importance to U.S. innovation.

Following an incredibly contentious vote for Speaker of the House, it has taken some time for Congressional subcommittees to take shape. However, at least the Republican membership of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet has taken shape in recent days, featuring a couple of well-known politicians whose efforts on patent system reforms have represented the interests of either end of the world of IP system stakeholders. The House IP Subcommittee during the 118th Congress also contains several incoming Representatives, including a few that have had some engagement with IP matters prior to joining the subcommittee.

During the PTAB Masters 2023 program, which was held this week on Tuesday and Wednesday at IPWatchdog’s headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia, former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director David Kappos explained on a panel about potential reform of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that the PTAB was meant to be an alternative to district court, but “that hasn’t worked out.” Kappos was Director during the enactment and implementation of the America Invents Act (AIA), which established the PTAB.

This week in Washington IP news, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is holding a hearing on the state of the country’s supply chains, IPWatchdog is hosting a two-day event on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at its headquarters, and an educator is sharing his experience implementing IP education as a STEM teacher and his current work with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

As Robert Frost poetically noted, two roads diverged in the woods he was exploring. One road was well trod, easy to traverse, and the other less traveled, difficult and getting weedy. Sadly, although Americans pride themselves on innovation, American innovation, particularly inventorship, is now the difficult road. Bad decisions made in previous forks in the road have gradually undermined the innovative spirit in our nation, but some inventors in Washington, DC, next week want to change course before we automatically go down the well-trod path.

When Adam Smith spoke about an “invisible hand,” he was talking about a good thing – the way that free markets harness the laws of competition, supply and demand and self-interest to improve the economy. But he also could have been thinking of another law. The law of unintended consequences: that actions of people, and especially of governments, always have unanticipated effects. Sometimes these effects can be perverse, reflecting a profound failure of “second-order thinking” (in other words, thinking ahead about “how could this possibly go wrong?”). On January 5, 2023 – a day that may go down in IP infamy – we saw two bold actions. First, the “Protecting American IP Act” became law; and second, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a new rule that would invalidate noncompete agreements across the United States. But wait, you might say, that actually sounds great! What’s the problem with protecting American IP, and making the rest of the country join California in unleashing talent to go where it likes? Well, don’t be too hasty. Stay with me on this, and you will see just how shortsighted our government can be.

US Inventor is publicly opposing the appointment of Representative Darrell Issa (R – CA) to Chair the IP Subcommittee due to Issa’s record of IP reforms that are harmful to independent inventors and startups. To accomplish these IP reforms, Issa squelches the voices of independent inventors and startups while amplifying the voices of Big Tech and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled multinationals. Now, in a recent statement, Issa argues that his IP reforms have made the patent system more fair for everyone, even as the facts show he is completely wrong. Issa is unfit to be IP Subcommittee Chair.

This week in Washington IP news, Congress is back in session with a light week of hearings including a Senate Judiciary hearing on competition in live entertainment. Elsewhere, there is a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) training session on the patent appeals process, and a discussion about President Biden’s tech agenda from the ITIF.

This week in Washington IP news, following the federal holiday to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Congress is not in session, but there are still some interesting events to put on your calendar, including the all-day listening session on United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)-U.S. Food & Drug Administration collaboration on Thursday; a panel discussion at the American Enterprise Institute about the near-term future for financial markets; and a discussion with IP experts at the USPTO about IP protection in China.