Legislation Update

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Citation: Vol. 40 No. 2
• Publication year: 2015
• Author: DERRICK BRENT Masimo Corporation
• topic: Patent law,Federal

Legislation Update

DERRICK BRENT Masimo Corporation

PATENT LEGISLATION

In January 2015, new members of Congress were sworn in and a new two-year legislative session began formally. One of the first items on the agenda for the new Congress, however, is anything but new—patent legislation. During the previous congressional session (2013-14), the House of Representatives passed a bill containing changes to patent litigation in the federal courts, primarily. The Senate decided to forego consideration of the House bill and draft: its own legislation. However, the Senate was unable to complete its work on legislation and consideration of the issue, at least for the 2013-14 Congress, stalled in May 2014.

On February 5, 2015, the House re-introduced its bill from the previous Congress, The Innovation Act. The central provisions of the bill are:

• Heightened pleading, requiring plaintiffs to provide more specificity regarding the alleged infringing product, business structure of the plaintiff, licensing or pricing commitments;
• Limited discovery prior to claim construction (only information related to claim construction);
• Fee awards and other expenses to prevailing party unless court finds that the...