Yesterday, Senator Patrick Leahy, the incoming Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, gave a major speech at Georgetown University on his agenda for the next Congress - Ensuring Liberty And Security Through Checks And Balances: A Fresh Start For the Senate Judiciary Committee In The New 110th Congress. Here is the section on "Patent Reform And Life-Saving Medicines":
Reforming our patent system will also be an enormous, but critically important, project in the new Congress. Our Constitution enshrined patent rights for a reason: “to promote the progress of science and useful arts.” The spirit of American innovation has made the United States the world’s leader in intellectual property. Yet the expressions of American innovation – in the form of patented goods and processes – are only as good as the system that fosters and protects innovation. Our patent system was created in another century, and we need to update it. It must serve the 21st Century industries that have made us the envy of the world, just as it well served the smokestack industries of an earlier era.
Complementing that effort, I intend to redouble efforts to reexamine our patent laws in the hope that by making thoughtful and practical changes we can greatly increase access to essential medicines throughout the world. We can help struggling families in developing nations, while improving U.S. relations with large segments of the world’s population. The current global health crisis is one of the great callings of our time. Whether it is the Avian Flu, AIDS, SARS, West Nile Virus, or the approaching menace of multi-drug resistant bacteria, we need to recognize that the health of those half way around the world now influences our security and affects our lives here in the United States. I want the work of the Judiciary Committee to be a catalyst to help make life-saving medicines more readily available around the world.
None of this is new. The first part of this sounds similar to Leahy's statement last August - Leahy, Hatch Introduce Sweeping Patent Reform Bill. The part about patents and medicines also echoes what he said earlier - Leahy Unveils Bill To Foster Low-Cost Drugs For World's Poorest.
What is important is that the speech confirms that patent reform will be on the Committee's agenda next year. That is good news, given the gridlock of this issue in the recently adjourned 109th Congress.
However, all of this may be premature given the news about Senator Johnson's illness - which could change the balance of power in the Senate and keep Leahy from becoming Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
On the other hand, the Senate patent bill with introduced by both Leahy and Hatch -- so there is bipartisan interest. I just don't know how high this is on Hatch's agenda.
Stay tuned.
Leave a comment