Senate Hearing Held on Patent Reform Act of 2009

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on March 10, 2009 on the recently introduced Patent Reform Act of 2009, S. 515 . The witness list included Steven R. Appleton, Chairman and CEO of Micron Technology, Inc, Philip S. Johnson, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of Johnson & Johnson, David J. Kappos, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, Taraneh Maghame, Vice President of Tessera, Inc., Herbert C. Wamsley, Executive Director of the Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) Association, and Mark A. Lemley, Professor of Law at Stanford Law School.

The witnesses varied on their support for S. 515 . Appleton and Kappos support the bill, Maghame opposes it, and Johnson , Lemley , and Wamsley partially support it.

S. 515 is scheduled for further discussion at the Executive Business Meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 19, 2009.