In How the patent trolls won in Congress, Joe Mullin reports that "trial lawyers and pharma companies teamed up to stop change to patent laws." This account of what stopped patent reform strains credibility.
The article revolves around anti-patent people who felt surprised and frustrated that patent reform did not pass this year. It stops short of exploring why people opposed the reform due to obstacles it raised for small businesses enforcing their patent rights. Instead it focuses on frustrated lobbyists who recount bitter disappointment on a done deal thwarted and multiple unnamed sources who blame Senator Reid as caving to special interests.
What's the evidence for this amazing claim that trial lawyers influenced Senator Reid? The article notes securities litigators met to raise funds for Senator Reid's campaign in 2010. How does this relate to patent reform in 2014? We are supposed to see Senator Reid as beholden to trial lawyers of all types now and forever. Why big pharma is to blame is not articulated.
I guess when you fail as a lobbyist, you go into damage control, casting blame on somebody (make that anybody) to avoid the perception that you failed. After all you don't want to "lose your reputation" as being effective at tailoring the law to meet your client's objectives since it could eliminate your next lucrative lobbying job.
Copyright © 2014 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.
