The Senate Agrees To Patent Law Changes

Outside the scope of domains, but definitely in the larger world of intellectual property, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said today, that they had reached agreement on key elements of a bill to revise U.S. patent law.

Current law allows for patent infringement to be punished by payment of the entire market value of the product, but some high-tech companies say that is unfair, as just one of their products may involve hundreds of patents.

Under the proposed amendment, if a company has been found to have infringed a patent, the judge will help determine if the patent was critical to the product, as is typical in pharmaceuticals, or a bit player, as is more typical in high-tech items like computers and mobile phones.

Currently, damages could be tripled if the infringement is found to be willful.

Another proposed amendment to the bill attacks “forum shopping,” where plaintiffs file suit in courts likely to favor them, by curbing the practice.

“We are supportive of that compromise package. We hope that they take it up and we hope that it’s adopted,” said Bill Mashek, a spokesman for the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform which includes General Electric, Proctor & Gamble , Eli Lilly, 3M, Johnson & Johnson and Caterpillar.

David DiMartino of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, which counts Apple, Autodesk, Research in Motion , Palm, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Intel among its members, said the amendment represented “significant progress.”

As domain names fall within the broad defination of Intellectual property, and many of the same players seeking change in that forum are seeking changes to trademark laws, its a good idea to keep your eye on developments.