House Judiciary Committee Holds Patent Legislation Markup

On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, the House Judiciary Committee conducted a markup and passed H.R. 1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007.  Representative Berman said he hopes to take the legislation to the full House for a vote before the August recess. 

The committee voted to approve an extensive manager’s amendment during the markup.  In addition, six other amendments to the legislation were approved.  The text of all seven amendments can be found on the House Judiciary Committee website at http://judiciary.house.gov/.  

Many of the contentious issues in the patent legislation were not quite resolved before the committee approved the bill, including venue provisions.  Representative Berman requested that Representatives Lofgren and Gohmert work together to examine the forum-shopping issue in greater details before the legislation is presented on the House floor, although he pointed out he did not want the legislation modified to such an extent that it operated in favor of the defendant.  Ranking Member Smith and Representative Issa supported the amendment, but also felt it was overbroad and should be tweaked to ensure all exceptions for universities in the venue provisions applied only when they were acting as a university, rather than as a corporation.