Steven Appleton on Hatch-Leahy patent reform bill (S 3818)

Back in September, Steve Lohr of the New York Times wrote of the Hatch/Leahy bill (S 3818): Yet any legislation is not likely to be enacted for another year or two.

In November, STEVEN R. APPLETON, the chairman, CEO and president of Micron Technology, wrote in the Salt Lake Tribune: Sen. Hatch has crafted bipartisan legislation that will reform and modernize the patent litigation system to stop the abuses that are hurting consumers, businesses, and small and large users of our patent system alike. For that, he deserves our gratitude.

The key word, post-Election Day 2006, is bipartisan. Senator Hatch worked with Senator Leahy in crafting S 3818. Given the way things turned out, Senator Hatch deserves our thanks for creating a template which may get some traction in the next Congress.

Of S 3818, look here

and here

and here

Appleton also wrote: As a result, the system that governs how the courts oversee patents has been thrown out of balance.
To take advantage of this imbalance, new companies are dedicating themselves not to creating new products, but exclusively to suing other companies. They sue, not because they have legitimate patent claims, but because they are confident they can settle with defendants who would rather not spend time, money and manpower mounting a legal defense only to lose big on an uneven playing field.

Appleton did not use the words "patent troll," although one suspect the new companies he mentions might be deemed patent trolls by some. He does convey the idea that patentees who don't have legitimate patent claims are winning on an uneven playing field. It would be nice if Appleton backed up his perception with some specific examples.

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Separately, a book on Strategies For Settling Patent Litigation includes the following:

1. “The Major Components of IP Law”, Parker H. Bagley, Partner Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP

2. “Strategies for Small, Medium, and Large Companies”, Dion M. Bregman, Partner Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

3. “Cutting to the Core: Applying Common Sense and Technical Knowledge to Patent Litigation”, Scott W. Breedlove, Partner Vinson & Elkins LLP

4. “Intellectual Property Law: Taking a Leadership Position”, Tarek N. Fahmi, Partner Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP

5. “The Many Roles of the Intellectual Property Lawyer”, Mary Anthony Merchant, PhD, Partner Troutman Sanders LLP

6. “Effective Strategies for Patent Litigation”, A. Shane Nichols, Partner King & Spalding

7. “Business-Minded Approaches to IP”, Richard A. Jones, Partner Dickinson Wright PLLC

8. “A Breakdown of Patent Law”, Anthony W. Shaw, Partner Dewey Ballantine LLP

9. “Working with the Client to Find an Objective”, Daniel A. DeVito, Partner Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP


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