On 9/6/11, US Business & Industry Council (USBIC) arranged a briefing for Senate staff about the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (H.R.1249)(formerly known as the Patent Reform Act of 2011).
This briefing’s purpose was to make the Senate aware of many of the problems with this horrific legislation. The panelists were (from right to left (facing out from the panel)):
Chief Judge Paul Michel (retired), U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
Gary Lauder, Lauder Partners, Silicon Valley venture capitalist (recording, so not seen)
Valerie Gaydos, Founder, Angel Venture Forum
Kevin Kearns, President, U.S. Business & Industry Council, Moderator (at podium)
Jonathan Massey, attorney and constitutional expert
Dr. Pat Choate, author, Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization
The main video of the presentations will be posted by USBIC.
Some excellent sound bites here from Judge Michel regarding the bill.
At 11:41 [1] he talks about FTF not being worth wrecking the patent system.
At 12:00 [1] he said of Post-Grant Review: “I can guarantee you that if I went into private practice, [under this bill] I could hold up any patent for almost a decade in post-grant proceedings. It would never get to trial in the district court.”
At 12:53 [1] “It’s a big setback, not a step forward, and the idea that it’s going to create jobs is a joke.”
At 13:15 [1] “Passing the bill is going to slow down the queue, not speed it up, so how can it possibly create jobs?”
HD version is available. More info: http://bit.ly/patentreform [2]