Patent Politics

• The Chinese: In the October 12th Republican Debate, Mitt Romney broke into his speech on patent rights and foreign trade: “I understand that if we don't get real careful and protect patents and designs and technology, that what we tend to sell the most of, those kinds of things -- intellectual property -- is going to get stolen by the Chinese or by others; that we have to recognize agreements have to be in our benefit, not just in their benefit…We need to make sure that the Chinese begin to float their currency and they protect our designs and our patents and our technology.”
• Tax Strategies: For his part, Barak Obama has proposed special legislation to block patenting of tax strategies. (Obama Tax Patent) The Bush Whitehouse has (at least implicitly) embraced these tax strategy patents.  Ed Lazear, the Whitehouse chief economic advisor, is the first named inventor on a pending patent application directed to a method of “multi-state tax analysis” filed by the Schwegman firm in Minneapolis. (Link).
• Patent Reform 2007: S.1145 is still hanging around the senate waiting for a couple of hours on the floor where it can be passed without debate…The Bill is in the Judiciary Committee, but it will move quickly if proponents can find 60 votes. (Informal reports are that they are only a handful shy.)