A Texas congressman plans to reignite his effort to reform how
intellectual property disputes are conducted, such as the one being
duked out by BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and NTP. If
the bill sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is enacted, it
could protect end users from losing the right to use disputed
technologies while a patent infringement case is being
adjudicated.
Smith is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's
Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property. His
bill constitutes the biggest overhaul of the patent system in more
than 50 years.
An early version of the bill proposed eliminating injunctions in
patent infringement cases, such as the injunction NTP requested
against RIM, which, if granted, would halt BlackBerry service in
the United States. The threat of an injunction is typically enough
of an incentive to convince an alleged infringer to settle with the
company that claims it has been damaged. But RIM has refused to do
so.
However, large pharmaceutical companies rely on injunctions to
stop competitors from copying drugs still under patent protection.
The pharmaceutical lobby helped derail Smith's bill last summer.
Recently, however, Smith held meetings with representatives from
both the technology and pharmaceutical industries in an attempt to
find common ground. Both groups, for example, are open to changing
the current system, which awards patent rights to whoever can prove
he invented something, to a system that grants the patent to the
first person to register an invention.
Ronald Riley, president of the Professional Inventors Alliance,
is against the bill. He says that if Congress eliminates
injunctions--often the only legal recourse that small companies and
independent inventors have in a patent dispute--then large
technology companies will have what amounts to grabbing rights over
emerging technologies. He says his group is prepared for a "bloody"
fight.
Smith says he is optimistic that he can pass the legislation
this year. But patent reform will come too late to help RIM--or
BlackBerry users--in the suit with NTP. At press time a judge was
considering final arguments for and against NTP's injunction
request.
icon.
